...

*Crash into my bed*

Oh my god...I cannot believe how long I made this.

Over 20,000 words.

What the fuck is wrong with me? I swore to make this one shorter than the previous chapter.

Well, I had to do lore intro just in case do to using a friend OCs for this chapter.

Just warning you now.

It's long before we even get to the viewing.

You have been warned.

Also, warning of slight hint of racism due to certain characters being racist.

Oh, and the Reaver Lores I got from Tempest. So, most of it is from what he has told me and showed me.

The Variant showing up in this chapter lore comes from me.

Enjoy!!

"Hmmm."

Zero looks at his holograms, each screen showing a different world.

"Which one, which one?"

He mused to himself.

"I have one." Tempest said. "How about showing our dear guests here...THEM?"

!!

The moment Tempest said the last word; a chill went down the audience spine. Well, most of them. The Vanguardians, Diego, Grace, Meiko, Kismet and the Chaosbringers weren't affected or shaken up by that ominous word.

"...You sure?"

Zero gives him a flat look.

"Cause if they somehow realize we're watching them and try to break reality to get in here, I'm erasing them from existence."

He deadpans as Tempest laughs...a bit nervously.

"Don't worry." He said. "Your defenses and security are too tight and your viewing screens undetectable. They won't show up."

"...And if they do?"

Zero looks at him.

"If they do then Sapphire and my other wives are free to kick me in the nuts."

He said, face joking but tone completely serious. He was willing to bet his nuts on the line to prove that he's right. And considering how hard Tempest wives kicked. Zero could rest assured that he was telling the truth.

"Errr...excuse me?"

Ruby gulped.

"But who are these THEY you guys are talking about?"

She asked nervously at the somewhat tense atmosphere.

"A special group of people that live in Tempest multiverse." Ei spoke up. "You could say that they are basically his version of the Vanguardians there."

The Vanguardians looked surprised and a little bit interested at that.

"A group that is basically us in his multiverse?" Ethan said. "But different I'm betting."

"Very much."

Theresa nodded.

"I still say that they are more of a mix of Vanguardians and Chaosbringers."

Zero deadpans.

"Haha, oh my dear." Amagi smiles. "You really are adamant about that aren't you?"

"You've seen them."

He deadpans.

"You all know why I said that."

"They would make excellent operatives of the Empire."

Palpatine admitted.

"They certainly have...fire."

Anakin admitted.

"You mean that they are batshit insane!?"

Demo and Seraphim laughed.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?"

Homelander yelled.

"We call them The Reavers."

Zero ominously said.

A majority of the audience shivered at the word.

"The...Reavers?"

Midoriya asks. Both intrigued and terrified.

"Sounds edgy."

Bakugou scoffs. Though there was a bit of tension on his shoulders as though he was just saying that to mask the chill running through him.

"My, my." Kafka said amused. "Sounds like an interesting group."

"That's one way to put it."

Zero deadpans as Tempest chuckles.

"They don't sound that impressive or important."

Firecracker scoffs.

"Yeah." Naoya said. "Sound like a bunch of unimportant commoners."

Tempest twitches at those dismissals as some of the more arrogant ones agreed.

"Yeah." "Agreed." "They are nothing compared to our goddess!" "I'll just steal their powers." "I bet they're weak."

"Unimportant?" Tempest coldly smirks. "Weak? Oh please, you know nothing about them."

"Oh, please!" Velvette said, unimpressed. "They're probably nothing more than a bunch of boring peasants with questionable fashion tastes."

"I doubt they would last a second on the battlefield."

Doban cockily said.

"..."

**ZAP!!**

"AHHHHH!!"

They screamed as Palpatine zapped them.

"Annoying."

Palpatine growls.

"You think them weak?"

Zero says.

"You haven't seen your faces in a mirror than."

He coolly says as he opens several screens and starts with the furthest one.

But then stops.

"Oh wait..." Zero says. "Forgot to bring them in."

???

"Who-?"

*HUM!*

A massive portal appears and drops a whole bunch of people from it.

"HUH?!" "OW!" "MY BACK!" "GACHA!" "NOT THE TIME SIS!" "WHO DARES!?" "I DON'T RECALL THIS BEING PREDICTED!" "SENPAIS!" "ONORE!"

A whole group of colorful people full through. Several people that the Fate cast recognized (i.e. Archer, Saber, Lancer, you get the picture). And most they didn't.

"Ugh..."

Gudao groans as he gets up. Helping his sister, Gudako up as well.

"Did we get forced rayshift again?"

He asked.

"I don't think so."

Mini Da Vinci said.

"This is unexpected..." Sion groans. "What happened?"

"I say!" Goredolf shouted. "What is the meaning of this!?"

"Senpais are you okay!?"

Mash asks Gudao and Gudako.

"We're fine Mash."

Gudako says.

"Just a little bit startled, but this is nothing new."

"Has the Ordeal Call started already?!"

Menuire shouted.

"No."

Zero interrupted them.

"It hasn't and if they try to start it...I'll kill them."

He said getting their attentions as the Fate cast look at Gudao and Gudako weirdly.

"Hey Rin..." Shirou whispers. "Don't those two kind of look like us but genderbended?"

"Yeah." Rin said. "Probably a coincidence."

*SHINK*

"Who are you, young man?"

Scáthach coolly asks, Gáe Bolg Alternative poised in her hand ready to strike if he presented a threat to her masters.

Zero just laughs.

"Heh. Put that away, Ms. Scáthach it won't do anything to me." Zero said amused. "Besides, I brought you here for...I guess a real vacation that doesn't require you having to save the world."

"Eh?"

*One long explanation later.*

"...Understandable."

Gudao said.

"EH!?!?"

Neon shouted in surprise.

"Just like that?! It took us longer to adapt to knowing about the multiverse and about beings like them!"

She points to Zero and the others.

"How are you so calm about it!?"

"This is normal."

They said.

"NORMAL?!"

Rin shouted at that.

"YOU'RE SAYING THIS IS NORMAL!?"

"It's basically a Tuesday for us."

Gudako shrugs.

"..."

"I'm scared to know what you all have been through."

Sakura Matou said.

"..."

Most of the groups have Singularity/Lostbelt flashbacks and dealing with the Servants shenanigans.

"...You don't want to know."

Mash deadpans.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Awkward silence is awkward.

"OKAY!"

Demo shouted cheerfully.

"How about we let our man, Zero get this party started!?"

Zero rolls his eyes but does so.

(Korrath Striker)

"DAMN!" "HE'S HUGE!" "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!" "IS THIS BATTLE BEAST LONG LOST COUSIN!?" "HE'S GOT THE SPIRIT AND AURA OF A WARRIOR!" "Interesting."

"Ugh, disgusting." "A total furry."

"..."

*ZAP!!*

"AHHHHH!"

Stormfront and Firecracker screamed in pain as they were zapped by Meiko shadow lightning.

"Morons."

Diego deadpans. Strange symbols flickering in his green eyes.

"Korrath Striker."

Tempest begins.

"He's what known as a Graxorrian. From the planet Primarok." He began explaining. "In the universe the Reavers live in, his race is renowned across the galaxy for their unparalleled physical strength, tactical brilliance, and honor-bound society. They thrive on the hunt, but every kill is ritualized, adhering to strict codes of conduct to maintain balance and respect for their prey."

"Like the Yautjas from the Predator series?"

Miko asks.

"Something like that, yeah."

Tempest nodded.

"Korrath Striker was born into the Striker Clan, one of the most prestigious warrior families on Primarok."

He said.

"From a young age, Korrath was a prodigy among prodigies. Even among his clan he was a once in a lifetime natural, he displayed unmatched strength, and instinctual hunting skills that outmatched his peers."

"Sounds like my kind of guy to spar with."

Yang said.

"A worthy opponent!"

Battle Beast agreed.

There were nods of agreement at that as Tempest chuckles.

"There's a catch though, wasn't there?"

Diego spoke up.

"You're building this up with a plot twist."

Tempest chuckles again before turning serious.

"Of course, you would catch on to that."

"It is rather obvious that there is more to this than meets the eye."

Optimus Prime said.

"Zero-san called them insane." Midoriya spoke up. "That must mean that they are not the most mentally stable group of people around."

"Smart."

Tempest nodded.

"But you are right. They aren't the most sane people around."

"Didn't Onyx flirted with your wife?"

Demo asked.

"No." Tempest shook his head. "That was a different Sapphire."

"...He flirted with my female counterpart?"

Zero deadpans.

"Can you blame him when Sapphire is one of the hottest females in the multiverse?"

Tempest deadpans.

"...Touche."

Zero deadpans. That was the most of a confirmation that Tempest was going to get. Mainly because to Zero, it would be weird calling a female version of himself hot since they were literally the same people. Just with different genders, lifestyles and lore.

"You have a female-!?"

"Korrath perspective and beliefs differed from his fellow Graxorrians." Tempest continued on before Zero snapped and killed somebody if they started demanding to see his female self and start making lewd comments on Sapphire. "While the Graxorrians respected their prey and followed their codes. Korrath did not. To him, his hunger for the hunt was different, he didn't care about honor or survival. Just the thrill of it. The feeling of superiority, of domination."

"It set him apart from the rest." Seraphim said. "It alienated him from his people because of his obsession to become the ultimate predator of all time."

"It all came to a head." Tempest said. "During the Great Hunt."

"The great hunt?"

Jaune asked.

"It's a sacred tradition where young Graxorrians prove their worth by hunting dangerous creatures." Tempest explained. "Korrath went too far. Instead of taking down the assigned prey and ending it mercifully, he turned the hunt into a bloodbath. Korrath wiped out an entire ecosystem, including non-hostile creatures, leaving nothing but devastation in his wake."

"HE WHAT?!" "MONSTER!" "EVEN I DON'T DO THAT!" "JUST BECAUSE HE WANTED TO PROVE HIMSELF SUPERIOR!?"

"That's not hunting." Blake's voice went colder. "That's cruelty."

Battle Beast's grin didn't move, but his eyes sharpened. "It is wasteful."

Seems like even Battle Beast felt it was too much which was saying something.

"Geez." Yang said, shaking her head. A little bit pale. "I love a good fight, but even I can only take so much."

"SO MUCH BLOOD!" Toga yelled. "But...kind of pointless? I mean, what's the point of destroying an entire system if there's no one left to kill?"

"He's a bigger psycho than we are."

Dabi deadpans.

"And here I thought Homelander was sickening."

Butcher said to himself.

"It's impressive, I'll admit."

Nihilister said.

"At least he showed who rules the roost."

Dystopian nodded his head in agreement.

"Of course, you would like this."

Rachel mutters to herself.

"It is VERY exciting to see such carnage."

Qliphoth nodded in approval.

"...How the hell does Zero put up with you?"

Henry says in disgust and morbid fascination.

"Sex."

Qliphoth answers.

Zero rolls his eyes at her short answer, knowing that there was more to it than that.

"How uncivilized...yet efficient."

Killcode said.

"He would have made a fine general and even commander of my armies."

Uvos said.

"This was the final straw for the Graxxorrians." Tempest said. "They had tolerated a lot from him because he was a member of one of their most prestigious clans and an exceptional warrior. But his cold annihilation of an entire ecosystem was like a slap to the face as he had spat on their traditions for the last time."

"They exiled him, I'm guessing."

Meiko asked, causing the FGO cast to blink as they look at her for a moment.

"Hey, bro. Doesn't she kind of look like..."

Gudako whispers into Gudao ear.

"Yeah, she does."

Gudao.

"Maybe it's a coincidence?"

Mash offered.

"In our line of work?"

Morgan Le Fay said.

"Doubtful."

"YOU!?"

Saber shouted as she stood up.

"Hello, sister."

Morgan smiles evilly at her.

"What are you doing here!?"

Saber shouted, Excalibur on hand.

"Woah, woah, woah."

Seraphim shouted as he snapped his fingers cheerfully, causing Saber to sit back down by force.

"No fighting right now!" He said. "Trust me, Zero will murder you if you do."

Saber grumbles as Tempest continues.

"To answer your question, yes." He said to Meiko. "When the elders confronted him, this is what he said:"

Korrath: "Prey is prey, it exists to be hunted, only the strong decide what is sacred."

Korrath's quote hit, and Jaune's face twisted. "He talks like the world owes him prey."

"And he learned the hard way," Qrow muttered, "that even warrior cultures have lines."

"Not like it mattered to him."

Zero dismissively said.

"It simply liberated him to know that he was a cut above the rest."

"Wow. So he's one of those kinds of people."

Jack said.

"Pretty much yeah."

Tempest said.

"Stripped of his clan name and banished from Primarok. He journeyed into the galaxy, becoming something of a galactic boogeyman. He wears the necklace of his closest friend."

"That's kind of sweet."

Nicole said.

"After he had killed him just so he could kill stronger prey that they were hunting."

Tempest added.

"Never mind."

She said.

"Here's some of his accomplishments:"

1. The Devastation of Zynthar: Korrath single-handedly wiped out the Zyntharian Hive Queens, destabilizing their planet's ecosystem and driving the species to near extinction.

2. The Shattering of Xeltrion: On the crystalline world of Xeltrion, Korrath destroyed the legendary Shard Beasts, creatures thought to be indestructible. He kept their cores as trophies. 3.

The Fall of the Eryon Fleet: A fleet of starships tried to hunt Korrath after he raided their colonies. He boarded each ship one by one, killing the crews and leaving the ships drifting in space.

"He's a monster."

Kismet said.

"Even by our standards."

"He's a furry wet dream."

Grace snickers.

Aizawa's gaze flicked to Tempest. "Exile was the right call, even if it meant nothing to him. If they kept him, they'd normalize him."

"Normalize?" Bakugou snorted. "He'd make 'normal' extinct."

"Facts." Gudako nodded like she was taking notes. "Bro's a walking extinction event with an axe."

Tempest chuckles at their reactions.

"Eventually his path crosses that with the rest of the Reavers and for once, he felt a kinship and fellowship with people that understood him. And after Onyx defeated him in combat"

Tempest said.

!?

"Someone actually managed to-!"

"Next."

Tempest continued on.

A beautiful muscular woman that looks like she could be an Amazon or Ares daughter appears on screen.

(Rowan Thatcher)

"WHOA!" "SHE'S HOT!" "MAMA MIA!" "NICE MUSCLES!"

"Not bad."

Diego admitted.

"That's an actual compliment."

Akeno giggles.

"He's a hard one to impress. So the fact that he's even giving the Reavers any kind of compliment is real praise indeed."

"Huh."

Tempest blinks.

"Go figure."

He says looking at Zero.

"...What?"

Zero deadpans at him.

"Nothing."

Tempest chuckles before his face turns serious.

"Rowan Thatcher."

He begins.

"A human born on earth. She is practically an agent of Chaos."

"Like Taeho, but tamer!"

Seraphim cheerfully said.

Tempest rolls his eyes at that. But just continued on.

"She can be considered a complete tomboy. Opposite of being dainty, delicate, soft, demure. She was rowdy, reckless, loud and uncontrollable, always living for the thrill of breaking the rules."

"How improper!"

Iida automatically shouted with his usual hand chops. Getting snickers from his classmates at his automatic response.

"Pah." Homelander scoffs. "If I was there, I would teach her a thing or about being more ladylike and not a barbarian."

Eye rolls were seen at that as Tempest continues.

"She didn't have the greatest of childhoods." Tempest coldly said. "Her parents were real pieces of works. The beat her, abused her, starved her tried to break her and turn her into nothing more than their own personal servant and toy. And the worst? They forced themselves on her sexually."

!?!?

"WHAT!?!?"

There were roars at that as Joshua started shaking again at the last part. Remembering them as Rachel and the others tried to calm him down.

"..."

"Wh-what?"

Charlie said shaking.

"N-No...no, no, no."

She was in shock. She knew how cruel humans could be. After all, they had Sinners in Hell for a reason.

Raikou's smile vanished so completely it looked like it had never existed. "Give me their names."

"What parent would do that to their child?!"

Billy shouted, eyes narrowed.

"It's disgusting!"

Arcee shouted.

"Despicable."

Lycaon growls.

"Utterly vile."

Carmilla eyes narrowed.

"I would love to teach them a lesson."

Boothill hisses.

"People like that," Butcher said, voice low, "don't deserve a 'later.'"

"Hah!" Homelander scoffs. "She deserves iTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!"

Homelander got beaten up for that.

*BOOM* BAM* POW* *TWHACK!!*

"JOHN!!" "HOMELANDER!"

*ZAP*

"Continuing on."

Zero said.

"At the age of 12 she managed to run away from home. Her rage fueled her actions and by the time she was 16, she had already earned a reputation as an unstoppable street brawler. She had even had a girlfriend."

"So she was a-"

"Finish that sentence and your ass is cooked."

"..."

"But sadly, for people like them, life is never kind. One day, her girlfriend, McKenzie, was found brutally beaten to death. The killers were never found, she drowned herself in booze and drugs to try to kill her pain."

"That poor girl..."

Charlie said sadly.

Mash's eyes shone, horrified but steady. "So she survived... and the world still kept taking from her."

"It would seem so."

Diego sighs.

"Then one day...life changed for her when she took this called Overdrive, since she was being paid to. And it changed her forever. Instead of killing her, it bonded to her. To her muscles, her bones, her nervous system. Literally turning her into a walking force of destruction. Her punches alone could break steel, send shockwaves, and demolish buildings with a single stomp."

"THAT'S TOO OP!"

Bakugou shouted.

"Who the hell gave them the ability to violate the laws of physics?!"

"..."

Diego awkwardly coughs at that.

Because let's just say that Diego own powers can defy the laws of physics more than it should.

"Getting back on track." Tempest said. "She then did what she loved best. Being chaotic. Governments, mercenaries, militaries, you name it, they all tried to recruit her. But she always rejected them. They tried to have her captured, she destroyed the bounty hunters. Here are some of her accomplishments:"

1. Single-Handedly Took Down a Crime Syndicate: Rowan beat an entire syndicate's worth of soldiers barehanded because they annoyed her during a drinking contest. When their leader begged for mercy, she laughed, stole his throne, and used it as a barstool.

2. The Kree Empire Debacle: The Kree tried to abduct Rowan to turn her into a superweapon. She broke out before the ship even left Earth, then stole their entire stockpile of alcohol as payback.

3. Accidentally Became a War God: On a primitive planet, Rowan beat their strongest warriors drunk off her ass. The locals, thinking she was some kind of celestial warrior, started worshiping her. Rowan thought it was hilarious and let them build a giant stone statue of her before leaving.

"Jesus."

Vaggie said.

"And I thought that Korrath guy was bad. She's even worse."

"Yeah." "Agreed." "I want to spar with her, but I don't want to die."

Welt's cane clicked once against the floor. "And now she laughs because if she stops laughing... she'll remember."

"And then she found a drug called Overdrive." Herta murmured, fascinated in the worst way. "Of course it bonded. Trauma makes excellent 'compatibility.'"

"She's unpredictable." Tempest said. "And the Reavers didn't find her, she found them...by accident. Some things happened and she was defeated by Onyx just like Korrath was. And joined his team.

"Geez."

Mina shook her head.

"Who the hell is this Onyx guy to be able to dominate two dangerous as hell beings in the galaxy."

"You'll see eventually."

Tempest said.

"Next."

The next screen shows a young man who had a skull on his face like a mask.

"Oh! I likey."

Angel said in approval.

"Hardcore."

Husk said as he looked at the skull mask on the male face.

"Victor Graves."

(Victor Graves)

Tempest said.

"He's from a race known as the Erevaraian." Tempest explains. "From the planet Erevara Prime. A world that was once thriving but has long since been consumed by corporate greed and societal decay."

"Of course." Bulkhead rolls his eyes...optics. "What else is new?"

There were shrugs at that.

"His mother left him and his father at a young age. Leaving him to the be at the mercy of his cruel and abusive father."

Tempest said, sparking outrage at that.

"How can a mother abandon her own child?!" Raikou snarls. "She had a duty to nurture, care and protect him!"

"You got me."

Tempest said.

"Why are their lives so horrible?"

Alice asks.

"Because life hates them."

Zero deadpans as he gives Tempest a bombastic side eye glare.

"Ehe."

Was all Tempest said.

"But for years he had endured horrific abuse in silence. Taking it over and over again for practically everyday until one day when he was 16...his powers activated. The powers of the void."

He said.

"And in a single moment...he unleashed his true powers for the first time and erased his father from existence. The only thing left? His father skull."

Eyes widened at that.

"HOLY SHIT!" "HIS FATHER SKULL WAS THE ONLY THING TO BE LEFT BEHIND!?" "WAIT! DOES THAT MEAN THE SKULL ON HIS FACE IS?!" "THAT IS VERY HARDCORE!"

"You're correct, Midoriya." Tempest nodded. "That skull is indeed his father skull."

"BY GOD!"

Sera shouted in horror.

"That's... that's a child. That happened to a child."

"Teen, but yeah." Diego's tone stayed flat—his eyes didn't. "Same category."

"Continuing on. After Victor murdered his father, he was quiet for an extremely long time. But then he said."

Victor: "He made me a monster. And now...I'll make the universe remember what monsters can do."

Endeavor blood run cold. Memories of how he brutally trained Shoto to surpass All Might flashing through his mind. While he didn't treat Shoto as cruelly as Victor father did to him. The similarities were disturbing.

'If I continue to push him...will I turn him into a monster?'

He thought to himself.

But unknown to him...he had already created a monster in another son of his. One he thought to be dead.

Dabi eyes narrow at the screen.

'It feels like HIM. But far worser than he had ever been.'

But instead of saying that, he said this.

"Yeah. You'd be amazed what kids can survive. And what they become after."

Dabi voice came out dry.

"That poor boy."

Raikou said sadly.

"It's not fair..."

Charlie said.

"Why did they have to suffer?"

"Because no matter how much we wished it to be different. There will always be those who must suffer the worst."

Grace says with a sigh as she mutters something in Spanish.

"Ain't that the truth."

Boothill said.

"Where's the justice in that?"

Shirou mutters to himself as Archer sighs at that. But for once, he didn't say anything harsh.

"After he killed his father, Victor fled his home planet." Tempest continues. "Spending the next several years honing and mastering his void powers. Wherever he went, destruction always happened shortly. Entire cities disappeared, swallowed by the void."

"Another boogeyman."

Rex Splode said.

"Yeah."

Tempest nodded.

"He quickly gained a reputation as a harbinger of annihilation. Governments, bounty hunters, and even heroes tried to stop him, but none could match the raw power of the void. Victor didn't kill for pleasure or revenge-he killed because it was all he knew. The void demanded to be fed, and Victor was its willing servant."

"And no one could stop him?"

Ellen Joe asks.

"Besides obviously this Onyx guy."

"..."

The hosts looked at each other.

"Onyx isn't the only one who can beat him." Zero said. "There are several others...including one who took them all down."

!?

"There is someone who actually beat all five of them?!"

Uraraka shouted in pure shock.

"We'll get to that later."

Zero said as Tempest continues.

"Victor's skull mask became his signature, a symbol that struck fear into anyone who saw it. Worn over his face at all times, the mask serves both as armor and a reminder of his origins. Those who ask about its significance rarely live long enough to hear the answer."

Tempest said.

"Victor answer is always the same: it's a reminder."

Tempest said.

"And the mask amplifies his already imposing presence. the empty eye sockets seeming to stare into the souls of those who face him. Combined with his void energy, it creates an aura of pure terror, leaving even the bravest warriors paralyzed with fear. Victor's power and ruthlessness quickly earned him the attention of the galaxy's most powerful factions. Heroes and villains alike came to fear his name, and whispers of "Oblivion" spread across the stars. Some called him a force of nature, while others believed he was the physical embodiment of the void itself."

Zhu Yuan exhaled slowly. "If he's feeding a power that wants erasure... that's not a villain problem. That's a disaster problem."

"And yet he's loyal to his group." Optimus said. "Meaning he is not only destruction. He is bonded destruction."

Herta's eyes gleamed. "A void-user with attachment. That's the kind that ends empires."

"Or protects one," Dan Heng added, looking at the word brother in arms like it mattered.

Tempest then said.

"And here are a few of his accomplishments."

1. The Collapse of Solari Prime: Victor erased an entire planet in a single act of defiance, leaving nothing but a blackened void where Solari Prime once stood.

2. The Purge of Arkosia: Victor dismantled the Arkosian military, erasing entire fleets and leaving their homeworld defenseless.

3. The Siege of Varyn-9: A coalition of heroes and mercenaries attempted to trap Victor in a dimensional prison. Instead, he consumed the prison itself, turning the trap into a weapon.

"...And here I thought Salem was bad..."

Yang said.

"We really have it good."

"We were too harsh and judgmental on Ozpin over this..."

Weiss said.

"Still..."

Qrow tried to say.

"Oh, shut up Uncle Qrow!"

Ruby shouted.

"These guys make Salem look like a low level Grimm!"

"HEY!" "HOW DARE YOU INSULT THE GODDESS!?"

"Eventually, his path crosses with Onyx and Onyx proved himself worthy by withstanding Victor void energy. Even surpassing it which very few beings could even dream of doing." Tempest said. "Thus, he joined the Reavers and became Onyx brother in arms. He is very loyal to the group and would do anything to protect them."

Tempest said as the screen faded and a new one appeared.

"Two more left."

Tempest said as the second to last was shown.

(Morgana Dreadfall)

"DAMN!" "SHE'S HOT!" "WOULD LOVE MOTORBOAT THOSE FINE TITS!"

(I think we all know who said the last one and no, Mineta wasn't one of the people to say that for once)

*MUSICAL CRASH*

The morons got crushed by a giant piano.

Especially Homelander and The Deep.

Meiko looks at Diego with a smirk.

"Stop looking at me like that."

Diego deadpans.

"Awwww. Why not?" Meiko purrs. "You did everyone a favor by dropping that pia-kya!"

She squeaks as Diego smacks her ass...which somehow sent shockwaves and knocked a good amount of people off their seats from the ass smack.

"Stop giving away my secrets."

Diego deadpans.

"And besides, that was light. I could have dropped a house on them."

Meiko pouted and stuck out her tongue as Kismet and Akeno laughs.

Everyone else was just confused.

"Dude..." Kaminari whispers to Kirishima. "Did he just..."

"Smack his girl ass in front of an entire audience with no ounce of shame and tap it so hard that it sent actual shockwaves?"

Kirishima answered.

"Then yes."

"Wow."

Kaminari said, looking at Diego with respect cause damn. That was unexpected.

"That's..."

"MANLY!"

Kirishima suddenly shouted.

"To be able to do such an intimate action in public and not even have the slightest hint of embarrassment or shame? Manly!"

"Super manly!"

Tetsutetsu agreed.

Midnight looked torn between amused and scandalized Victorian aunt.

Raikou blinks at the interesting reaction.

"Errr..."

Emily spoke up as she tried to get this back on track as she got up from the shockwave hitting her.

"Don't ask." Diego deadpans. "My entire existence doesn't make sense."

"O...kay?"

Emily said.

"You'll find out later."

Zero said with a smirk.

"...And of course, you'll expose my ridiculous reality breaking powers."

Diego deadpans as Tempest continues.

"Morgana (cue the Artoria PTSD at the name due to it being close in name to Morgan) Dreadfall, she was once a high ranking noble in Hell's endless hierarchy."

Tempest began, getting both Heaven and Hell interest at that.

"So, she's a demon then?"

Velvette asked intrigued.

"Yes." Tempest said. "Born from the flames of pandemonium and forged in the depths of Hell's darkest pits. She is a demon of pure chaos. Unlike other demons who reveled in the monotony of bureaucracy and eternal torment, Morgana's heart burned for something more: unrestrained, wild, and exhilarating chaos."

"Sounds like my kind of gal!"

Cherri Bomb said.

"Agreed."

Loona nodded her head.

"Sounds like a fun person."

Roxy added.

"Morgana was born into the ruling caste of demons, her lineage tracing back to some of Hell's most infamous figures. From the moment she first conjured flames as a child, it was clear she was destined for greatness. Her power was unmatched among her peers, her Hellfire more potent and destructive than any demon her age."

Tempest said.

"Here are some of her accomplishments:"

1. Burning the Holy Grail: During a Grail War, Morgana corrupted the Grail with Hellfire, turning it into a flaming monstrosity.

"SHE WHAT!?"

Rin, Shinji, some of Chaldea members shouted in shock.

"She did what to the Holy Grail!?"

Saber shouted in shock.

2. Turning the Moon Red: As a prank, Morgana cast a spell that bathed an entire planet's moon in red flames for a week.

"And probably turned the werewolves into bloodthirsty werewolves with flaming red fur."

Grace deadpans.

3. Puppy Diplomacy: Once stopped a galactic war by releasing a litter of Hellhound puppies into a negotiation room.

"That's...one way of ending a galactic war..."

Blake said as she shivers at the name: Hellhound.

"That's the most irresponsible peace treaty I've ever heard."

Vaggie says, blinking.

"And yet it worked." Himeko said, rubbing her temple. "That's what scares me."

"Chaotic good?" Ruby tried hopefully.

"Chaotic Morgana," Diego corrected. "Different taxonomy."

Akeno giggles.

"You would know."

She says.

"Considering the girls I'm married to and/or dating? Yeah I would."

He deadpans as Akeno giggles harder.

"I like her." Adam said. "Girl definitely got a creative streak in her."

"You would, you psycho."

"However." Tempest continues on in amusement. "Despite her raw potential, she found Hell to be boring."

"WHAT?!" "HEY!" "RUDE!"

"She hated the politics of Hell, found them boring and pointless. She craved fights, destruction, laughter that could shake even Hell itself. Where others saw chaos as a means to end kind of tool for power and influence. She saw it as an art, a way of life. She once told Lucifer:"

"This isn't chaos, it's just bureaucracy with extra flames."

"...Ouch."

Lucifer deadpans.

"But fair."

"Surprisingly, it is."

Satan agreed with Lucifer.

"She was a pain in the ass to Hell rules and leadership." Tempest chuckles. "Girl played by her own rules and made a mockery of her duties and embarrassed her rivals like made instead of killing them. Her crowning act of rebellion? Breaking into Hell royal kennels and stealing a hellhound pup and naming it Lord Cuddleton and treating it like a spoiled pet."

"SHE DID WHAT?!" "SHE NAMED A HELLHOUND WHAT?!" "IF SHE DID THAT TO ME, I WOULD BITE HER (Loona)!!"

"Huh. Maybe I should have called Loona 'Lady Cuddleton."

"..."

*BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!*

Loona shot Blitzo for that.

"ACK! NEW HOLE!"

"When asked why, she said this: Because he's cute, and you're boring."

"Girl got guts."

Beezlebub (HB) said.

"I'll give her that."

"She's batshit crazy!"

Chixia said, but she couldn't help but laugh.

"I think I like this girl."

Ellen Joe smiles.

"She's a walking safety hazard."

Zhu Yuan deadpans.

"She's a health violation in physical form!"

Seth Lowell shouted.

"Let's just say that Hell leadership had enough and sentenced her to eternal confinement in the ninth circle."

Tempest said.

"...Let me guess."

Rachel deadpans.

"She broke free."

"Yep."

Tempest said.

"Saw that coming."

She said.

"She saw it as a challenge and within weeks broke free from her chains and escaped Hell. When Lucifer demanded to know how she did it, she sent a flaming message to his throne room."

"Hell bored me. The universe is bigger, hotter, and a lot more fun. Try to keep up."

"...Why that little brat."

Lucifer grumbles to himself.

Morgana escaping Hell earned a low whistle from Boothill. "Breaking out of the ninth circle like it's a bar tab. Alright. Respect where it's due."

"She's certainly got spunk!"

Zeus laughs.

"She's crazy!"

Odin Ravens shouted.

"With the universe as her oyster she wreaked havoc among the mortal and celestial planes."

Tempest continues.

"She fought neither for power or purpose. But just for the thrill of the adventure, of the excitement. Every destroyed city a blank canvas for fiery masterpiece."

"I'm betting that this girl is the tamest and with the least angst and trauma filled history and she's literally a freaking demon."

Diego deadpans.

"Yep."

Tempest said.

"She's probably the most mentally stable of the group despite her kinks."

"...That's not really painting a great picture."

Grace sweatdrops.

"But then again, if they're supposed to be basically your multiverse version of the Vangaurdians...then mental sanity was never an option."

"HEY!"

"Morgana path eventually crosses paths with Onyx during one of his most destructive battles yet." Tempest said. "And they have an epic meet up when she steps in and steals the fight from him basically via turning the battlefield into a living inferno. Consuming enemy and ally alike."

"...And this is the one who's basically the sanest and tamest of them all."

Soldier Boy deadpans.

"Schematics."

Demo waved it off.

"Onyx wasn't pissed, he respected and actually admired her destructive passion and offered her a place on his team stating:"

"I'm basically chaos incarnate, you'll fit right in."

"...How is that not surprising?"

Alice spoke.

"Because it never is in our line of work."

Henry said.

"True."

"She accepted of course."

Tempest said.

"Obviously."

Aizawa said.

"Onyx is basically a kindred spirit, so they work well together." Tempest said. "They both love causing destruction, love putting fear into their enemies and are insane."

"Understatement of the century."

Jalter deadpans.

"NOW!"

Tempest smirks as he swipes away Morgana picture and brings in the last member of the Reavers.

"The last one. Their leader."

(Onyx Kane)

"DAAAAAMN!" "HE'S HOT!" "OH! ME LIKEY!" "Dude's hotter than I thought." "I want to touch and caress and massage those muscles (Ethan: "GRACE!!")

"Oh..." Stormfront couldn't hide her disgust completely. "He's Black."

"Yeah." Firecracker glares. "Disgusting-"

**BLAST!!!**

(What? I wasn't going to put in that word. But I did check and they are racist so I figure that they would have some kind of unpleasant reactions to Onyx since he's Black.)

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Stormfront, Firecracker and several other either racist, or delusional fools who thought themselves superior screamed as they were brutally taught the Pecking Order in a more brutal way than Mr. Popo version of it.

"Racist bastards/scumbags."

Other people said.

"Keep your prejudices to yourself."

Someone said as Tempest dusted his hands off of imaginary dust.

"Onyx Kane."

Tempest began.

"The leader of the Reavers." He started explaining. "His powers are immense and perhaps makes him the strongest of the Reavers."

"The strongest!?"

Ares (RoR) shouted.

"After what we have seen of the others. He's the strongest?! Even stronger than Victor?!"

"It does make sense." Hermes (RoR) said. "They did explain to us how every encounter went and how he easily broke through Victor void attack. So, logically speaking, him possessing powers beyond even his teammates makes sense."

"He isn't just dangerous." Tempest began. "But he is danger incarnate, a force of nature wrapped in a human body. If the Reavers are chaos incarnate..."

"Then Onyx is their GOD."

People shivered at that. Though some were irate at the idea of a mortal being called a God.

"How dare you put him on a pedestal on the same level as us!"

Loki (RoR) yelled.

"It's the truth." Tempest shrugs him off. "Throughout history there are mortals who possessed the powers of Gods or can even surpass them."

Loki squawks at that as did several other RoR Gods as Tempest continues.

"He does not seek battle because of a lust for power, nor does he revel in destruction for the sake of fun. Onyx is destruction. His very existence is an act of war against the universe itself."

Tempest said.

"From his very birth, he was never normal. His powers were too great that his mother died screaming as he was born. Her body torn apart by a force that no doctor could understand."

Several mothers winced at the thought of giving birth to a being that was your beloved child but at the same time was also your death and never being able to raise that child.

"For exactly 3 seconds the hospital was silent...and then BOOM!"

He suddenly shouts, causing the audience to scream.

*SCREECH*

And some would forever deny that they gave out high pitched squeals.

"The entire hospital exploded in a sphere of pure crimson energy."

Tempest said.

"By the time the authorities arrived, ten people were dead. Doctors, nurses and even security personnel. Everyone in the delivery ward was annihilated, their bodies reduced to dust. And at the center of it all was a newborn, Onyx Kane, wrapped in an aura of pulsating, unstable energy. And there his life began...but one of pain."

He said.

"His father, a brutal drunk who never wanted a son, took him home only because the government refused to. Onyx was never treated as a child-only as a monster his father couldn't kill and his mother wasn't around to suffer through."

"Of fucking course."

Cu spat out.

"Heaven forbid one of them gets a nice childhood."

"Indeed." Tempest agreed. "His life was full of suffering. His father didn't just beat him-he wanted him to suffer, he wanted him to o break. To be so afraid that whatever unnatural thing lived inside him would never dare emerge again. He was locked in a basement for weeks, starved until he was hallucinating. When he cried, his father beat him. When he screamed, his father beat him harder. When his powers started flickering, his father electrocuted him to "teach" him control."

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!!!"

Raikou roared. Her usual grace and elegance crumbling as her aura glowed a blood red as did several other people.

"What is wrong with you mortals!?"

Lute snarled.

"How can God creations be so...so...so disgusting!?"

"Why else do you think there are Sinners in Hell?"

Adam asked.

"Because they have free will and such, have the ability to act and think and do things that they shouldn't do, Lutey."

"Too bad, his father made a fatal mistake." Tempest said. "He, and the entire world in general. Made the fatal assumption that Onyx was just another abused kid. That he would never fight back and be used as someone tool. They thought wrong."

He darkly said.

"Onyx's breaking point came at the age of seven. A child in years-but something else entirely in spirit. His father came home drunker than usual, enraged about something. Onyx didn't care. He had stopped caring long ago. But when his father started hurting his mother, something deep inside him snapped."

???

"But...But I thought his mother died during childbirth?"

Reze asks.

"He suffered horrible hallucinations."

Zero gravely said.

"He 'saw' his father beating his mother. But in reality, he was hallucinating it."

"His mental health had deteriorated that badly?!"

Recovery Girl shouted in alarm.

"Sadly yes." Tempest said. "And it was then, that his powers erupted. His home ceased to exist in an instant. The very air screamed as energy surged outward, ripping apart the house, the walls, the floors, the very foundations."

"He literally deleted it."

Herta said.

"Yep. And his dad? He didn't just die. He ceased. There were no remains. No bodies. Just the shadows burned into the ground where they stood."

"Did he just Hakai'd that son of a bitch?"

Kaminari asked.

"That's a good analogy."

Tempest admitted.

"And from that moment on, Onyx felt liberated, he felt powerful. And the world soon learned what true fear was. Onyx was taken in by black ops agencies, scientists, and military groups who thought they could control him. Break him. They did experiments. Hooked him up to machines. Electrocuted him. Starved him. Drugged him."

"And he let them do it."

!?

"IS HE INSANE!?"

Jirou shouted.

"Yes."

Zero, Tempest, Demo, Seraphim said in unison.

"...Okay, walked right into that one."

She admitted as Momo asked.

"But why?"

She asked.

"Cause he wanted to see how long it would take for them to realize that it was pointless." Zero said. "He wasn't trapped in there with them. They were trapped in there with him."

"That's not insane. That's... that's a kid who stopped believing anyone could hurt him worse than life already did."

"...And then he proved it." Welt murmured.

Herta leaned forward, eyes bright. "Voluntary experimentation is not bravery. It's contempt. He wanted them to understand helplessness."

"And when they didn't," Diego said, "he taught them in their native language: consequences."

Gudao exhaled. "That's a Lostbelt mindset."

Gudako nodded. "When the world treats you like a weapon long enough... you either break, or you become the one holding the trigger."

Mash looked down. "Or you find people who finally treat you like a person."

Zero nodded at that.

"And when he was done?" Tempest said. "He just erased the facility out of boredom and the world trembled in fear. The warning they had for him?"

"DO NOT ENGAGE."

!!

Those words sent chills down their spines.

"Kinda feels like the universe itself posted a sign." Stelle muttered.

"DO NOT ENGAGE is what you write when you already lost the first three times." Jing Yuan said calmly.

"Or when you're admitting you don't deserve the right to try again," Himeko added.

Tempest continued.

"For years, he wandered around the universe, the world, looking for something to ignite a spark of life inside him."

"And he found it."

D stated.

"Yes." Tempest nodded. "Morgana, Victor, Rowan, Korrath. The people he would call friends and would even die for them."

"Now. Some of his accomplishments:"

1. Destroyed a planet by accident-he sneezed while testing his power.

2. Erased a god mid-sentence-just to see if he could.

3. Looked Darkseid in the eye and made him hesitate.

4. Said "Boo" to Omni-Man, and Omni-Man left the solar system.

5. Got bored and collapsed an alternate dimension for fun.

"HOLY SHIT!" "HE WHAT!?" "What's a Darkseid?" "HE SNEEZED AND DESTROYED A PLANET?! HE COLLAPSED AN ALTERNATE DIMENSION JUST BECAUSE HE WAS BORED?!"

Were the expected reactions.

"And those are the ones we are going to see right now."

Zero said, crossing his arms.

"To see them kick some poor, weak sap ass?"

Dabi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"To see them fighting against a force far beyond even what THEY could have expected or foreseen."

Zero said as the last hologram faded away and the massive screen turns on.

The Crown That Burns

"That's an interesting title."

Stelle said.

"Wonder what we're going to see."

Welt Yang tightened his grip on his cane.

He didn't know why...but he felt like he was about to encounter a ghost from his past.

The hall had been built by someone who resented endings. Pillars of stalled lightning climbed into a lidless sky; underfoot, constellations floated beneath black glass, whole rivers of star-map caught midcurrent. Heat prowled in the seams of the floor like a caged animal testing bars.

"Wow." "It's beautiful." "It looks like it contains the secrets of the universe." "What is this place?"

*And at the end of endless hallway...sat a figure on a throne. Her eyes, watching, gazing, seemingly all knowing, powerful.

(Grace Moon: Herrscher of the Void)

"HOLY SHIT!" "DAMN! THAT'S A WOMAN!" "SHE'S EVEN HOTTER?!" "HOW THE FUCK IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!"

"Damn!" Homelander whistles. "A fine woman to fuck into submi-"

*BURN*

GAAAAAH!!"

He got roasted cause no one of a sane mind wants to hear it.

"Bro."

Gudako whisper into Gudao ears.

"Let's make he stays away from the servants."

"Agreed."

Gudao nodded.

Something about the guy and his friends (well, most of the Seven) did not sit well with them. Especially the two that were obviously racist.

"Honestly."

Aventurine looks at the cooked Homelander.

"He gives us blonds a bad name."

But while everyone else was either gaping at the new Grace variant or at the idiot Homelander.

Welt on the hand...

*GRIP*

"Herrscher..."

He hisses under his breath.

He recognizes those eyes. The eyes of Honkai. Of the Herrscher. And he recognized this form.

The Herrscher of the Void.

"Welt?"

Himeko looks at him in concern as does the rest of the Astral Express and some others.

"Is something wrong?"

She asks as Welt very aura radiated tension and battle wariness.

"She is...a HERRSCHER."

He said quietly, but it was heard by everyone.

"Herrscher?"

March 7th asked.

"What is that? That doesn't sound like an Aeon."

She said.

"I don't think I've come across that in the Astral Express data banks."

Dan Heng said.

"Hmmm...that's not a name I'm familiar with."

Jingyuan said, rubbing a finger under his chin.

"I'm guessing it has something to do with his past."

Sunday of the Oak Family said.

"..."

Welt said nothing as he looks at Zero.

"Explain."

He said as Zero shrugs.

"Your world is not the only one who has to deal with the Honkai. As you well know after seeing those Bubble Universes."

He started explaining.

"But I'm guessing you're wondering why that version of Grace is the Herrscher of the Void and not Kiana?"

Kiana?

That wasn't a name many of them were familiar with if any besides Welt.

"That is correct."

Welt nodded before someone interrupted.

"HOLD ON!"

Belle shouted.

"What are you guys talking about? What's a Herrscher?"

"What's Honkai?"

Wise also added.

"What's a Kiana?"

Yuji asked.

"Is it food?"

"No that's Paimon."

Seraphim said.

"...What's a Paimon?"

Dupli-Kate asked.

"..."

The hosts look at each other before saying to them.

"Emergency Food."

???

"That-"

"Honkai." Zero starts, interrupting her.

The room quieted—mostly because his tone had that "this isn't a joke" weight to it.

"It's not food. It's not a Path. It's not an Aeon." Zero said flatly. "It's...a phenomenon. A plague. A judgement system. Reality's way of looking at a civilization and deciding whether it deserves to keep existing."

"THAT'S—" Belle started.

"—dramatic?" Zero cut in. "Yes. Accurate? Also yes. Basically your version of Hollow Corruption and theirs (points at Star Rail cast) version of Stellarons."

Welt didn't blink. If anything, his stare sharpened.

Zero flicked his wrist, and a small hologram formed above his palm: a living web of light, like a branching tree—then beneath it, a black ocean that swallowed the light.

"In simple terms: there are structures that hold countless worlds together." Zero said. "Some call it a Tree. Some call it the framework of existence. And surrounding it—under it—around it—are places where worlds drift, fracture, and become...bubbles."

He glanced at Welt for half a second, like he was acknowledging the elephant in the room without naming it.

"You've seen those," Zero added. "So don't act like I'm making this up."

"Hmph." Herta folded her arms. "A crude explanation, but not incorrect."

"Thank you, doll." Zero said without looking at her. Then continued. "Now. Honkai is what happens when that framework produces an opposing force—something that spikes when civilization grows. The more a world advances... the more attention it draws."

"So it's like...nature pushing back?" Ochako asked quietly.

"Not nature." Welt answered before Zero could. His voice was low. Tight. "It's smarter than nature."

Zero nodded once. "Exactly. Honkai adapts. It doesn't just hit you with a meteor and call it a day. It sends outbreaks. Corruption. Monsters. Disasters that escalate like an exam that gets harder the more you pass."

Wise rubbed his temple. "So it's like...a cosmic difficulty setting?"

"More like a cosmic immune system." Dan Heng said, eyes narrowed. "An immune response to civilization as a 'disease.'"

"Close." Zero pointed at him. "Honkai doesn't care about your intentions. Good people, bad people—doesn't matter. It measures results. If you fail, it resets you. It can corrupt you, kill you. You get Honkai Corruption, your chances of living decrease and the medicine is extremely expensive and difficult to make."

Yuji's face twisted. "That's...messed up."

"Welcome to the multiverse." Seraphim sang, spreading his hands.

"And when Honkai really wants to make a point..." Zero continued, voice dropping, "...it creates Herrschers."

"Herrscher?" March 7th echoed. "Okay, that one definitely sounds like a boss fight title."

"It is." Welt said immediately.

The word landed like a hammer.

Zero raised two fingers, and the hologram shifted—now a human silhouette appeared, with a glowing "core" in their chest. Around them spun symbols like planets locked in orbit.

"A Herrscher is a host." Zero said. "A person, or a vessel, chosen—sometimes made—into a terminal for Honkai's power. A walking disaster with an Authority."

"Authority...?" Jing Yuan asked.

"A concept." Herta cut in, her eyes gleaming with clinical interest. "An assigned dominion over a law of reality. Space. Lightning. Flames. Reason. Sentience. Dominion. Void. And so on."

Meiko blinked. "...So like an Emanator?"

"No." Welt's answer was instant and sharp.

Zero pointed at Welt like thank you for saving me the time.

"An Emanator is a person empowered by an Aeon's Path." Zero said. "A Herrscher is...Honkai wearing a person like a crown."

"That's a gross way of putting it." Himeko muttered.

"It's a gross thing." Zero replied.

Mash's hands tightened together. "So...do they lose themselves?"

"Sometimes." Welt said, voice rough. "Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they fight it. Sometimes they are it."

"And sometimes," Zero added, eyes half-lidded, "they're fully conscious and still decide to be a problem."

That earned a few uncomfortable glances toward the massive screen—toward the throne—toward Grace Moon: Herrscher of the Void sitting like she owned the end of the universe.

Belle raised her hand like she was in school. "Okay—so what does 'Void' mean here? Like...space?"

"Space and absence." Herta answered, too happy to talk about it. "Void Authority manipulates spatial rules—teleportation, rifts, severing distance, folding coordinates, deleting the 'between.' It's—"

"—a nightmare." Welt finished, jaw tight. "Because it makes 'safe distance' meaningless."

"Damn." Ruby whispered. "So you can't even run."

"You can." Diego said lazily. "You'll just still die tired."

"Diego!" Ruby hissed.

He shrugged.

Wise swallowed. "So...what you're saying is...that woman is basically a walking calamity."

"She is literally titled as one." Welt said, eyes never leaving the screen.

"Okay, but—" March pointed, confused. "Welt said something about Kiana earlier. Why isn't she the one on the throne?"

Welt's gaze flicked—just once—to Zero.

Zero exhaled through his nose like he was already tired.

"Because this isn't your exact world." Zero said. "Not your exact history. Not your exact chain of events. Honkai isn't a script—it's a predator. It picks what fits."

He gestured at the throne.

"In this universe, the 'fit' was Grace."

"But why her?" Belle pressed. "Why not some other random person?"

Tempest leaned forward, smirking like he knew the answer was going to bother people.

"Compatibility." Herta said. "Trauma. Potential. Resonance. A mind that can withstand it, a body that can contain it, and a will that can either break...or become a blade."

A beat.

"And Grace," Herta added, "is a very sharp blade."

Welt's grip on his cane looked like it might crack.

Zero tilted his head slightly. "And before anyone asks—no, that doesn't automatically mean she's evil."

"...That's not comforting." Vaggie muttered.

"It's realistic." Zero replied.

Yuji raised a hand again. "So like—if Honkai makes monsters and outbreaks and then makes...these...boss people, what stops it from just...winning forever?"

Welt's eyes narrowed. He didn't answer.

Zero did.

"People." Zero said simply. "The ones who refuse to die. The ones who keep standing up. The ones who turn a 'reset' into a fight."

Then, quieter, almost like it slipped out:

"And the ones who learn how to kill gods."

The hall went still.

Even some of the loudest mouths shut up for once.

Meiko looked between Welt and the screen, her playful smirk fading into something more serious. "So...Welt's reaction—"

"Is warranted." Zero said.

Welt finally spoke again, voice hard. "You brought us to watch a Herrscher of the Void sit on a throne in a place that doesn't look like any battlefield I've survived."

Zero's lips curved—barely.

"Correct."

"And you called it..." Stelle glanced at the title again. "'The Crown That Burns.'"

Zero's eyes narrowed like he was amused at a private joke.

"Because," Zero said, "some crowns aren't inherited."

He pointed at the screen.

"Some crowns are taken."

He said darkly.

"Grace didn't just become the Herrscher of the Void just because she was the perfect fit in that universe."

Zero explained.

"It was through a series of events that caused this to happen."

"What do you mean?"

Glynda asked, eyes narrowed.

"In the world that she is from. Honkai exists, obviously." Zero said. "So, of course, that version of Earth fights against it. The Grace moon in that world was a researcher, a scientist."

"..."

"A...scientist?"

Ethan choked out, trying to imagine Grace wearing a scientist outfit and being all professional and all.

"I...can't really imagine her being in that field." He said. "She'd look like she came straight out of a hentai novel."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU CANADIAN ASSHOLE?!"

"Different universe, different beginnings."

Demo said, cheerfully ignoring Grace trying to strangle Ethan.

"Once a bright and promising woman. She was a woman filled with compassion, kindness and heart."

Zero said.

"But in this reality, she was betrayed by not just her own government...but practically all of the governments in that world."

Zero ominously said, stopping the sibling murder fight and causing everyone to turn to him.

"Explain."

Rachel coolly said.

Zero sighs as he opens up some screens showing the Grace Moon of that world in various stages of her life.

"Grace Moon was humanity's greatest field commander and researcher—a prodigy in theoretical physics and Honkai phenomenon studies. Smart, driven, and compassionate, she volunteered for every high-risk operation. Her ability to survive extended exposure to Honkai zones made her a living miracle. People admired her. The governments praised her.

Zero said.

"But of course, this being the governments, there was always going to be a downside to these praises weren't there."

Agent Fowler stated. He knew quite well, being an agent of the government, how quickly things could change in the blink of an eye.

"You got it."

Zero nodded.

"They praised her, commended her works. But in secret meetings and classified dossiers, those same governments feared her. Feared what she might become. They whispered, "What if she's next? What if she breaks?"

"So, they plotted. And when the time came, they let her fall."

!?

"Those sons of a bitches!!"

Mrs. Mayberry slammed her fist against her armchair.

"They feared some stupid possibilities that they tried to kill her?!"

"Idiots."

Blade scowls.

"That's a surefire way to make what they fear come to pass."

"That was sloppy."

Aizawa scowls.

"It's the government." Diego deadpans. "They always find a way to screw us all over and make us pay the consequences for their actions."

"Why can't we ever have a working government that doesn't screw us over?"

Denji groans.

"I blame the economy."

Reze said.

"Fearing her potential fall, they sent her on a fake black ops mission." Zero continued. "Completely off the books. She was sent on a mission to investigate a newly opened Honkai Rift in the desert wastelands of Central Asia—alone. She was told it was a priority operation to save civilians caught in a Voidquake."

"But there were no civilians." He said. "There was no team. No backup."

There was only the Rift—and the trap. Her command had sealed her fate, rigging her escape route to collapse once she entered. Causing the cave to collapse on top of her and leaving her on death doorstep."

"Sorry, Moon. But you were too much of a liability to still keep as an asset."

"That was the last thing that she had heard before she was sealed and trapped with the Honkai rift."

Zero said.

"And within the Rift's heart? A dormant Herrscher core pulsing like a star. Grace confronted death, confronted the abyss... and the abyss blinked first."

The images shows her ascending beyond human boundaries.

"She didn't die." Zero said. "Instead, everything stopped—space, time, thought. The core opened like a cosmic eye and recognized her."

"It did not corrupt her."
"It did not force its will."

"She became one with the Void."

"Like Victor?"

K asked.

"Like him...but more closer than even him."

Zero says.

"Oh boy..."

"And this is what the Void whispered to her:"

"You were never born to obey," the Void whispered. "You were born to judge."

That sent chills down their spines. She was once a savior. Now she was their Judge.

"In that moment of betrayal, grief, and buried fury, Grace embraced the Void. Her body became its vessel. Her will, its anchor. The Herrscher of the Void wasn't created. She was awakened."

Zero says.

"The world believes Grace Moon is dead. Her former allies erased her from existence, rewriting history to hide their crime." Zero smirks. "But she walks the earth—reborn, powerful, and emotionally scorched."

Weiss's hands clenched. "That's not just murder. That's erasure."

"The same sin, different font." Victor's skull-mask on-screen suddenly felt... relevant.

Herta's eyes narrowed, unusually displeased. "Idiots. If you fear a variable, you don't sabotage it—you study it with consent."

"Consent," Vaggie echoed. "That word keeps being a stranger in these backstories."

"It never is."

Ei says, crossing her arms.

Ruby's eyes were wet, angry. "So she saved lives... and they answered by trying to bury her."

Tempest smirked, but it wasn't amused. "And now she's the kind of 'mistake' that makes governments go extinct."

Zero sighs as he continues.

"She might not seek destruction or follow the Will of the Honkai...But she will never be used again."

He said.

"Humanity had their chance...and they fucked it up by trying to kill her. Now she has ascended into becoming a god."

"BLASPHEMY!!"

**MUSICAL CRASH!!**

Loki (RoR) got crushed by a giant piano.

"She listens to the hum of the stars, the whispers of fractured space, and the tension of collapsing dimensions. When she strikes, she does so with purpose: to punish the wicked, protect the desperate, and remind the world that some flames only grow stronger when smothered."

Zero says as though Loki didn't interrupt him.

"They tried to erase her. But she came back and showed them the consequences of their own actions. She might not be with them, but she's not against them and lets it be known by her actions. She practically humiliates them by easily fighting not only the Honkai but other super powerful dangerous threats her world has."

"Her once loving and gentle nature and personality, now darkened."

"She's like an Avenger/Alter Ego."

Gudao said.

"Just like Jalter!"

Gudako cheerfully said.

"OI MASTER! WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"

Jalter shouted as Zero continues.

"This is one of her quotes:"

"The world broke me. The Void rebuilt me."

People shivers and Welt just sighs.

"Of course that would what set her on this path." He said. "But the fact that she wasn't corrupted or overwhelmed by the immense power of the Void and the Honkai, shows just how powerful and strong her will is to make it bend to her will and command. A Herrscher core recognized her and merged with her."

"And it didn't corrupt her."

Fu Xuan said.

"She still retained her autonomy and did things her way."

"Correct."

Zero says as the screen shows:

Some of Grace accomplishments (Pre-Herrscher):

 Project RiftCartographer

Grace built the first reliable predictive model that could map micro-rift growth patterns and forecast Voidquake chain reactions minutes to hours ahead using multi-source telemetry (satellite shear readings, atmospheric charge, Honkai density drift). Result: evacuations stopped being guesswork—casualties dropped hard in zones where her model was deployed.

 Anchor Array Field Kit (A.K.A. "Moon Pins")

She designed portable spatial-stabilizer anchors that could be hammered into terrain or dropped via drone, creating temporary "safe geometry" pockets for medics, evac routes, and containment work. Result: rescue teams could operate inside unstable regions without getting shredded by spatial shear.

 Resonance Dampener Harness

Grace invented a wearable system that reduced "rift pressure" on the nervous system—cutting vertigo, dissociation, and spatial nausea during exposure. Result: made it possible for ordinary responders (not just elite or "compatible" anomalies) to survive long enough to save people.

 The 17-Minute Corridor (The Famous Evacuation)

During a major Honkai incident, Grace improvised a "corridor" by chaining anchors + emergency echo-mapping, holding a safe path open for exactly 17 minutes while hundreds of civilians and responders escaped. Result: it became her most famous public achievement—proof she wasn't just smart, she could apply theory under impossible pressure.

"Jesus..."

Shiro said in pure shock and admiration at what Grace had accomplish when she was still a human.

"I feel...irrelevant."

Rin says.

"Just that alone is enough for the throne to recognize her as a hero."

Ishtar said. Causing Rin to do a double take after finally taking a good look at her.

"Wha-WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE ME AND WHY ARE YOU DRESSED SO...SO SHAMELESSLY?!"

She screams.

"I'm the goddess: Ishtar."

Ishtar flashes her an annoyed look.

"This is perfect Sumerian fashion."

"IT IS NO-"

*BZZT!*

Some of Grace accomplishments (Herrscher of the Void)

1) The Violet Verdict of Kharion

Where: The Kharion Frontier (a chain of inhabited systems)
What happened: A warlord empire called the Kharion Spear-Host launched a "unity invasion" with a flagship the size of a city, backed by planet-cracker escorts. The defending coalition was losing badly—whole moons were being used as staging platforms.
What Grace did: She arrived mid-battle and folded the flagship's forward space into itself, turning its own momentum into a containment collapse. Then she opened rifts along the escort lanes and re-routed their planet-cracker volleys into deep null—no explosion, no debris field... just weapons vanishing like they never existed.
How it's immortalized: Frontier cultures still call that day "The Sky Folded". The battle site is now a taboo pilgrimage zone known as The Kharion Scar, and the coalition's victory oath ends with:

"May the Verdict find the cruel."
They depict her as a haloed judge whose face is never shown—only broken geometry and violet light.

2) The Duel at the World-Glass Cathedral

Where: Veyra, a planet whose cities are built into living crystal continents
What happened: Their ancient protector—the Glass Colossus—activated under corrupted command logic and began "purifying" entire regions. It was too strong for armies; their best champions died in minutes.
What Grace did: She didn't wage a war. She declared a trial.
She fought the Colossus alone, using Void Crucible constructs as "weights" to pin its limbs, then Fate Unbound to cut out the exact instant it executed its annihilation pulse—like removing a heart-beat from time.
Instead of destroying it, she rewrote the battlefield's geometry and left the Colossus kneeling and inert at the edge of the Cathedral's crater, a monument-sized warning.
How it's immortalized: Veyrans teach their children a proverb:

"Even gods must answer."
Their largest temple is now built around the kneeling Colossus, and their priest-scholars call Grace The Unbending Witness.

3) The Moonchain Stitch of the Nethis Spiral

Where: The Nethis Spiral (a nebula system cluster)
What happened: A phenomenon called The Maw-Rift started eating reality—planets didn't explode, they simply ceased to have been, leaving "holes" in causal history. Multiple species fleets tried to contain it and failed.
What Grace did: She mapped it like a researcher, not a warrior.
Using Rift Cartography, she identified the Maw's "feeding geometry," then built a massive Anchor Array by seeding stabilizer pins through asteroid belts and derelict stations. The anchors formed a lattice—nicknamed the Moonchain—that stitched space shut around the Maw long enough for her to compress it into a sealed subspace pocket.
How it's immortalized: The Spiral races reset their calendar to Year 0: The Stitch. They keep miniature chain charms as symbols of survival, and their emergency beacons include a phrase translated across dozens of languages:

"Hold. The chain will hold."

4) The Silence That Broke the Sundered Choir

Where: Eidon-Reach, a region of psionically linked civilizations
What happened: A parasitic hive-intelligence called The Sundered Choir enslaved entire worlds by harmonizing minds into obedient "notes." Resistance was impossible—rebellion thoughts were detected before they formed.
What Grace did: She refused to fight the Choir with brute force.
Instead, she used Echo of the Rift to reflect the Choir's stolen pain back into its network—every suppressed scream, every erased identity. The hive's harmony fractured into discord. When the Queen tried to flee through a psionic jump, Grace snapped a Void Prison around the exit vector and sealed it in a dead pocket of space where no mind could reach it.
How it's immortalized: Eidon cultures commemorate The Night of the Quiet: one full hour each year where the entire Reach goes silent—no speech, no music—because they believe silence is what saved them. Their myth calls Grace The Mercy That Doesn't Beg.

5) The Archive That Would Not Burn

Where: Keth, a planet-sized moving library-civilization (a "wandering archive world")
What happened: A dimensional raider faction attacked to steal their living records—histories encoded in matter, memory, and song. The archive's defenses were collapsing; if the core stacks were destroyed, entire species histories would be permanently erased.
What Grace did: She treated it as the highest crime: erasing truth.
She used Null Vector to ruin the raiders' aim and boarding trajectories, then performed a precise Fate Unbound: Delay across key demolition charges—so the explosions "never arrived" until she had already removed them into rifts.
When the raider commander tried to ransom hostages, she didn't negotiate. She issued a verdict, opened a portal behind him, and dropped him into a containment pocket locals now call The Blank Shelf.
How it's immortalized: Keth archivists refuse to name her—out of reverence. In their texts she's recorded as "The Unwritten One", and the highest honor in their society is a blank plaque: proof your deeds mattered more than your name.

...

"..."

"..."

"......................."

'3...2...1...'

"WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!!?!?"

'Bingo.'

Zero and the others thought to themselves.

"HOW THE ACTUAL FUCK!??!" "DUDE!?" "THAT'S SO MANLY!!" "HOW DARE SHE BE SO COOL!!!" "TOTALLY AWESOME!" "She's alright I guess."

"So...she's neither good or evil."

Welt mutters to himself.

"Just a lawful neutral that switches depending on the mood and circumstances...I suppose that's good enough for me."

"Tch!" Homelander scoffs. "So, she got a little power up, big deal. She had to be given it! Unlike me."

"Oh please!"

Tempest rolls his eyes.

"You weren't even born with them naturally, you walking petri dish. You were experimented on as a damn fetus while still in your mother womb you Superman/Captain America wannabe reject."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?!" Homelander eyes glowed red. A sign of his heat vision. "I AM THE FUCKING HOMELANDER!! YOU DON'T GET TO TALK TO ME LIKE TH-!!"

*CRASH!!*

*SPLAT!*

"GAH!!??!?"

Homelander screamed in pain as he was impaled by a Subspace Lance. One that Welt instantly recognize as Honkai in design, meaning...

'Does Miss Moon have the ability to eavesdrop in this world?' He thought to himself. 'In the world of a being even stronger than the Honkai or Aeons?'

"Seems like my counterpart seriously doesn't like braggarts like him."

Grace said, scratching her head.

"Honestly?"

Joshua said.

"Real."

"Yeah." "For sure." "So, so very real." "What a loser."

Grace Moon sat alone at the center with Eclipsera 

(Eclipsera: Dormant Form)

asleep in her palm—sleek, obedient, a hair-thin gold filament holding the abyss along its edge. Six fractured wings dozed at her back like quiet threats. Her eyes were coins of sunset in winter. Her eyes gazing onto those that trespassed into her realm.

"You who have dared to trespass into my realms," she said, voice as still as falling snow. "You are either brave, foolish... or have a death wish."

Ruby's shoulders crept up to her ears. "She talks like... like the air itself is scared to interrupt her."

Welt didn't blink. "That cadence. That certainty. That's not arrogance. That's... Authority."

Herta's lips curved. "A sovereign tone. She's not asking who they are. She's assessing if they're worth the oxygen."

The five who had come smiled like knives.

"'Brave, foolish, or a death wish.'" Dan Heng murmured. "She just listed their options like menu items."

Gudako leaned forward, eyes sparkling. "She's so COOL—"

Gudao covered Gudako's mouth on instinct. "Not. Now."

Charlie whispered, unsettled. "I don't like how calm she is."

Diego, arms folded, didn't look away from the screen. "Calm doesn't mean kind. It means practiced."

Onyx—shoulders rolling, fury banked under his skin like a thunderhead counting to ten. Morgana—hellfire curling off her in flirtatious ribbons, grin like a dare. Korrath—axe slung across his back, pupils dilated, a hunter tasting wind. Rowan—laughing already, palms buzzing for an excuse. Victor—quiet and precise, emptiness humming in his hands.

Grace's gaze held until the silence felt like a held breath. Then the corner of her mouth considered amusement and thought better of it.

"Or you have no regard for your own safeties," she added, cold gold eyes pinning Onyx's. "Which is it?"

"Yeah... they really do look like they came to die on purpose." Weiss said, voice thin.

"Or to prove they can't." Yang muttered. "Which is... worse."

Optimus Prime's optics narrowed. "They are not acting like challengers. They are acting like a unit seeking a measurement."

Mash swallowed. "They're smiling like people who already accepted the outcome."

"But they're still walking forward." Midoriya whispered. "That's... terrifying."

Akeno giggled softly. "They're flirting with death."

Onyx wiped blood from his mouth that hadn't had time to be shed. "Sweety, it's all three," he said, teeth bright. "We don't give a fuck what happens to us."

Several people reacted at once.

"HE DID NOT—" Neon squeaked.

"He did." Stelle deadpanned. "He absolutely did."

Jing Yuan's expression stayed composed, but his eyes sharpened. "That isn't bravado. That's a soldier's acceptance, weaponized into confidence."

"Or a trauma response with muscles." Vaggie muttered.

Palpatine's smile was faint and unpleasant. "Such delightful disregard for self-preservation."

Zero didn't even look at him. "Don't start."

"And I thought Nicole was crazy."

Belle shook her head.

"EXCUSE ME!?"

Morgana giggled and forced a joint back into place with a liquid crk, sighing at the pain as if it were perfume. "Oh love, you are the most fun we've had in years."

Korrath lifted the axe by its throat. "Finally," he breathed, reverent. "A worthy challenge."

Rowan threw her head back and barked a laugh that made the glass shiver. "HAHAHA! COME ON! I STILL WANT TO SEE IF I CAN MAKE THIS BITCH BLEED!"

Victor cupped gravity in both hands, the air dimpling. "Better to die fighting," he said, soft as a page turning. "Dying is boring."

Grace let it land. The smallest smile cracked and was gone.

"Very well."

She gets up from her throne, sword in hand. Her eyes locking upon them all, especially on Onyx. There was something about him that was...off.

'He's not normal. Even among this group of fools.'

"He's not?"

She thought to herself as she observes him closely.

There was something about him that didn't fit.

"Interesting."

Hugo says.

"What secret does he hide that not even he's aware of it?"

He ponders.

Not the swagger. Not the blood in the grin. Not even the violence coiled under his skin—she'd seen rage a thousand ways across a thousand ruined worlds.

This wasn't rage.

It was war.

Welt's grip tightened with a soft creak. "That line... matters."

Herta tilted her head. "A distinction between emotional volatility and disciplined violence."

"War means intention." Aizawa said quietly. "Rage swings. War aims."

Todoroki's gaze narrowed. "He's not losing control. He's channeling it."

"Huh?" Meiko says amused. "So he's... like a weapon that chose to be a person."

Diego's eyes flickered faintly. "Or a person who decided being a weapon is simpler."

"I'm almost impressed." Grace says amused. "That's why she stared at him longer."

She shook her head before saying.

"Try not to die too easily."

Eclipsera woke.

A low VVVVMMM rolled the length of the hall.

March 7th shivered. "Okay, that sound? Nope. My soul didn't like that."

Wise stared. "That's not a sword hum. That's like... a seal breaking."

Herta's eyes gleamed. "A filament holding the abyss along its edge... fascinating engineering."

"Engineering?" Ruby squeaked.

Herta didn't blink. "Power is still structure. She simply has better mathematics."

"It's like our weapons, Rubes."

Yang says.

"Except hers is beyond normal weapon engineering."

Welt's voice went low. "That blade is Honkai-adjacent in how it behaves."

"And yet," Dan Heng said, watching the wings lift, "it's obeying her."

"And that's what makes her even more terrifying."

The gold leash along its edge brightened, and veins of violet light pulsed through the black glass of the blade as if a heart had decided to live there. Her wings lifted, six crescents of fractured horizon cutting their own gravity into the air. The stars underfoot flickered like a field of animals feeling a change in weather.

"REAVERS!" Onyx roared, without taking his eyes off Grace. The others grinned with too many teeth.

"FUCK. SHIT. UUUPPP!"

They charged. The hall exhaled, and the chapter began.

"Of course they scream it like a ritual." Qrow muttered. "Like they're daring fate to answer."

"Kinda goes hard though." Mina admitted, then flinched. "I hate that it goes hard."

Arcee leaned forward. "That formation—watch. They're not charging randomly."

Optimus nodded once. "They are spacing. Setting roles. That is not madness. That is coordination."

Gudao exhaled. "So they're insane, but professional."

Gudako whispered, thrilled, "My favorite kind."

"Say that again and I'm leaving you here," Gudao whispered back.

"YOU WOULDN'T DARE!!"

"Try me."

Korrath moved first because honor hated waiting. The axe sang down, a sentence of iron that had ended kings.

SHRAAANG!

Grace lifted two fingers and pinched the haft.

"SHE PINCHED IT." Yang's jaw dropped. "Not even I can confidently say I can do that without making effort to ensure it didn't cut off my shoulder!"

Bakugou snapped, outraged like physics personally offended him. "SHE PINCHED A SWING LIKE IT WAS A FUCKIN' NUISANCE—"

"Language," Iida barked automatically, then stopped. "—Actually never mind."

'Did Iida seriously just dropped that foul language mishap!?'

His classmates thought to themselves in shock.

Aizawa's eyes narrowed hard. "She didn't block. She denied."

Welt's voice was tight. "That's Void Authority used like a judge's stamp."

Momentum died like a lie caught in the mouth. Korrath's stance kinked; his right shoulder popped with a satisfying krk as he forced a counter-arc. He cut low, heel hooked, then came back overhand, rhythm old as a drum-line on a killing field.

Korrath's shoulder popping made several people flinch.

Mash whispered, horrified, "That sound..."

"That's a normal thing." Diego's tone stayed flat. "Also, that's the sound of someone realizing they brought bravery to a god fight."

Grace stepped onto the back of his axe as it passed, toes light. Gravity flowered under her foot; steel remembered that it had been ore. Tendons stood out along Korrath's forearms like cables strung too tight.

He slammed a headbutt.

THUD. Grace's chin turned a finger's width. A bruise bloomed—violet, shocking against her skin—and then receded in a single breath as if time had realized its mistake and corrected it. Her smile was small and approving.

"You aim like a hunter," she said.

"HE LANDED ONE!" Kaminari blurted.

"And she healed like the bruise was embarrassed." Zhu Yuan deadpanned.

Battle Beast's grin widened. "Good. He made her acknowledge him."

Grace's approving line hit.

"Weirdly... that's the scariest part." Blake murmured. "She's praising him while taking him apart."

Korrath laughing on one knee made Ruby's eyes widen. "Why is he happy?!"

"Because he finally found someone who can kill him," Butcher answered. "And he thinks that's romantic."

"...Why do I get the feeling they're all going to be flirting with her somehow?"

Henry deadpans.

"..."

Eclipsera flicked, transforming.

(Eclipsera: Awakened Form)

The blade's mass spiked for a heartbeat—Graviton Edge—turning a tap on his pauldron into a cathedral falling gently inward. Metal dented with the obscene softness of clay. Something hair-thin cracked beneath it—clavicle complaining.

Korrath dropped to a knee and laughed, honest as a scar. "Worthy," he said.

The bruise should have already been knitting under his skin. Instead, a sting of cold crawled along the dent; violet rime spiderwebbed out from the impact, lighting capillaries he didn't know the names of. The Graxorrian knit that usually snapped bones into place with a contemptuous shrug... slowed. Millimeter by grudging millimeter, the fracture sulked toward whole. He rolled his shoulder and stood; the right-hand swing he had thrown a thousand times without thinking would be a half-beat late for the rest of the fight. Half a beat mattered.

Aizawa spoke immediately. "That's death."

Weiss swallowed. "Half a beat is... missing a parry. Missing a step. Missing a breath."

Victor (Archer) murmured, "Combat at that level is just accounting."

Herta nodded, delighted. "Exactly. She imposed a tax. A small one. And small costs become fatal."

Welt's eyes never left the screen. "She didn't need to win fast. She just needs them to fall behind."

Jing Yuan's voice was calm and grim. "She's not fighting them. She's teaching them time."

"Time is too precious to waste after all."

Rina said.

Rowan arrived on that beat, laughing.

She clapped.

BA-DOOM! Pressure sprinted across the hall and the constellations under the glass spiderwebbed. She surfed her own shockwave like a lunatic saint, elbows chiming, knees like mortar shells, palms detonating in a rhythm that wanted to be a drum solo and a car crash.

WHUMPF to the sternum. CRACK across the hip. THUD on the jaw. Bruises rose and vanished under a faint violet sheen as though stitches pulled themselves in, skin tidying the mess before it remembered to be hurt.

"That's it," Rowan howled, joy tearing her voice. "Don't you dare be polite!"

Grace whistled a note that wasn't a note; it found the bones behind Rowan's smile and tugged. The next shockwave went backward into Rowan's chest like a rude hand, and she staggered, cackling even as she coughed a veil of blood. Honkai glitter ran through the spray like ground glass. The microtears lacing her lung would usually vanish on the inhale; this time they held open just enough to make breath cost one more count than it should. A little hitch. Small. Everything.

Rowan spun into a flying knee. Grace opened a slit in the air no thicker than a coin.

fssst. The knee disappeared and reappeared behind Rowan with perfect loyalty, clipping her own shoulder and pitching her into a skid that left a laughing smear across the glass. She slapped the floor and grinned up at the ceiling like she wanted to see if it would fall for her.

"You're mean," she wheezed, giddy. "Marry me."

Gudako slapped her knee again. "THERE IT IS."

Gudao groaned. "Of course."

Meiko giggled despite herself. "Rowan's insane, but she's honest."

Vaggie muttered, "That is not flirting. That is a cry for help in a party hat."

Diego's mouth twitched — barely. "Nah. That's flirting."

Ethan shot him a deadpan look.

He added, deadpan: "Don't judge me. I have eyes...and considering my own lovers. I can see the signs."

Ethan sighs.

"Why must my sister be such a pain in the ass in other universes?"

"YOU WANNA GO!?"

Grace laid her palm on Rowan's forehead. The air around the touch turned heavy, forgiving nothing. Rowan tried to spring and found the springs in her tendons had gotten bored.

On the other side of the hall, Victor had begun to write.

Angles settled in the air where no one else could see them. Plates of altered weight slid into place at oblique angles; little cliffs of "no" rose underfoot, puddles of "maybe" where ankles would betray their owners. A lariat of gravity sang out toward the small of Grace's back.

She tilted reality three degrees. The tether closed on an afterimage, cut a narrow mouth in space, and slipped into it like a snake into a rabbit warren. It fell out of a tear above Victor.

TUNK. He sliced it in half with two fingers, neat as surgery.

Grace's heel kissed a plate.

KLIK. Frequency flipped. A ripple ran like heat through iron; plate after plate rekeyed to her voice. Force lines bowed around Victor and seated his body in the clean geometry of a diagram. Two void spears arrived with the deferential thunk of polite bailiffs and pinned his coat at the wrists without the indecency of blood.

"Override acknowledged," he said, deadpan, impressed.

"Look at that control." Dan Heng said. "He's constructing a battlefield."

"And she just re-keyed it like she had the admin password." Herta said, practically purring.

"'Override acknowledged.'" Stelle repeated. "He's polite about losing."

Mash was pale. "Those spears... she pinned him without hurting him."

"Because she didn't need blood." Aizawa said. "She needed proof."

He pushed at the field anyway, and veins in his hands darkened with effort. Flecks of violet brightened in those vessels like embers running up a fuse. His fingers tremored—a whisper, nothing—and the next time he tried to switch a plate on a precisely counted beat, it came a breath late. His work was a discipline of margins. The margins had been taxed.

"Victor's discipline of margins..." Archer murmured. "And she taxed the margins."

Welt's jaw tightened. "She's dismantling them without ever looking strained. That's... bad."

Morgana twirled her wrist and lit flowers.

Hellfire sigils unfurled around her like licorice poppies, and a slit opened in the air like a mouth laughing. Barbed wings squeezed through, hounds with jaws full of stolen bells, the sweet reek of wine boiled too long. "Come now, love," she purred, eyes bright with ruin. "Let me see you sweat."

Grace's throne of collapse drifted into being like a promise remembered. The hellfire reconsidered and went sideways; the torrent braided into serpents that wrapped Morgana's ankles like overexcited pets. The pack paused mid-pounce, ears forward, eyes turning to their new sovereign with the adoration of treacherous things that had found a proper tyrant.

"Heel," Grace said, pleasant as pouring tea.

Loona's ears flattened. "NOPE. I'm not watching hellhounds get commandeered like pets."

Lucifer leaned back, face pinched. "She said 'heel' like she owned the concept."

"Morgana... liked that." Angel observed, then smirks. My kind of gal to party with"

"Of course you would think that."

Husk drowned his drink.

Morgana snapped her own radius with a crk like breaking an expensive toy and popped it back with a blissful sigh. Where runnels of her own fire had licked her forearms, blisters bloomed and should have fled; the Honkai rime kissed the edges and kept them open, pink and angry, each little sting turning sigil-weaving gestures into hisses. "Mmm," she said, breath catching. "Stingy. Keep going."

Charlie whispered, worried, "Those blisters aren't healing. That means she's still suffering even while joking."

"To them, pain is simply a form of pleasure."

Dystopian smirks.

"Don't be wasting your worry on people who get off on it."

Zhu Yuan exhaled. "That's torture via inconvenience though. Precision cruelty."

"This is normal."

Tempest deadpans.

Diego's voice stayed low. "She's not trying to hurt Morgana. She's teaching her: you don't get to write the rules in someone else's domain."

Grace muttering to herself: "And Morgana's taking notes like it's foreplay."

"I pity whoever becomes her lover."

Mydei deadpans.

Grace did not oblige. Two fingers lifted, and the slit closed with a librarian's click, putting the book back where it was meant to live. The hounds sat, tails thumping the glass, proud to fail no orders.

However, she noticed one thing.

It was Onyx who finally reached her.

Not with speed like Rowan. Not with craft like Victor. Not with ritual like Morgana. Not with pure physical truth like Korrath.

With arrival.

His Fury Conduit went off like a coastline collapsing into the sea—KRA-KRUMBLE—but beneath the destruction there was something that made Grace's eyes sharpen.

The impact wasn't chaotic.

It was directed.

Everyone leaned forward.

"That wasn't a charge," Jing Yuan said. "That was arrival."

"His power... it's not flaring randomly." Fu Xuan narrowed her eyes. "It's escalating with intent."

Herta's smile returned, sharp. "Directed chaos. That is rare."

Welt's voice came out like a warning. "He's forcing her to respond."

"Good." Battle Beast said, almost reverent. "Make the monster look at you."

Ruby whispered, "He's... smiling."

Butcher muttered, "That's a man who found the only thing in the universe that can hit him back."

The hall lurched; pillars moaned under new physics. He arrived in her face, fist first, mouth blood-wet, smiling with the satisfaction of a man who had found the cliff he'd always hoped to jump.

WHAM.

Grace caught his knuckles on the flat of Eclipsera and didn't give ground. WHAM—WHAM—WHAM. Each strike was a theorem on escalation; his power climbed exactly because it had been told not to. Hairline fractures chased each other along his metacarpals like tiny lightning. He drove her through a lightning pillar; it burst around her with a KZZT-RAAASH, raking three bright lines down her flank.

For a split-second, the cuts didn't heal instantly.

Not because she couldn't—

but because the impact left a residue that wasn't Honkai.

Welt's eyes widened — just a fraction. "That residue... isn't Honkai."

It was something else, something with the texture of oath and conflict, and her regeneration had to decide how to interpret it.

Herta's head tilted.

"A second system. A separate law. Something with its own definition of 'damage.'"

Dan Heng's voice was careful. "That means he carries a principle that conflicts with hers."

"An oath and conflict texture..." Fu Xuan repeated softly. "A metaphysical signature."

Meiko frowned. "So he's... like a walking contradiction."

Diego's eyes narrowed, green flicker sharp. "Or a walking warning."

Zero's tone was flat. "Now you see why she singled him out."

The cuts closed as she landed on one knee, leaving a sheen like new skin that didn't remember pain.

She tasted blood. The taste amused her. "Good," she said, quiet and pleased.

Because now she knew.

This wasn't just a reckless mortal punching at the sky.

This was a mortal who had been touched by something that understood war as a language.

They went up together.

Her wings carved the air; the throne ascended behind her like an argument that would not be dropped. Onyx vaulted, leaving a crater sulking below and the smell of dust waking. Fist against edge. Conduit against collapse. Shockwaves peeled constellations off the ceiling and turned them to golden snow.

He missed once. That was enough.

Eclipsera flowered into a crown of shards, orbit tightening—Oblivion Bloom. The petals converged over his sternum and imploded with intimate cruelty. Bones didn't break; they refused him. Breath went ragged. Blood glimmered at his lip, red threaded with violet grain his fury burned down through grit and will, but not completely. Every inhale now cost him one more beat. It didn't make him slower. It made the price of not being slow visible.

And then Grace saw it—something she hadn't expected.

The violet grain she'd threaded into his breath should have behaved like it did on the others: stubborn, invasive, a friction that taxed healing and timing. It should have clung.

It didn't.

It tried.

For the briefest instant, the Honkai rime reached into his ribs like frost seeking a crack—only to hiss, recoil, and burn away in thin, angry steam, as though his body carried a heat that was not thermal, but conceptual.

The theater went dead silent for a beat.

Herta spoke first, delighted. "It tried to cling and failed. That is not immunity. That is rejection."

Welt's voice was tight. "Resistance with attitude."

Stelle blinked. "Did... did his body just tell Honkai 'no' like it was annoying?"

Jing Yuan's gaze sharpened further. "If that spreads... he becomes a contagion to systems that rely on rewriting."

Mash whispered, "That's... dangerous."

"And beautiful," Gudako said, starry-eyed, then flinched at Gudao's look. "What? It is!"

Grace (theater) muttered, impressed despite herself. "He didn't just survive her. He disagreed with her."

"If only just barely."

Cipher frowns.

"If whatever power was hidden inside him didn't react fast enough then it would have been a much more different story."

"So, he's not immune." Mana (Nikke) spoke. "Just resistant. Or perhaps, since she didn't fully understand the scope of his power, she didn't put as much power into it beyond the usual output."

"Meaning, that if she poured more energy into it, then it's most likely that he will be more damaged then."

Jien giggles at that.

Not immunity.

Resistance with attitude.

Like the universe itself inside him refused to be rewritten so easily.

Grace's smile tilted sharper.

So you really are different, she thought.
Even if you don't know how different.

"I don't get it."

Miranda spoke up.

"What does she see that none of them see? What we don't see?"

"How should I know?" Quiry deadpans. "You do realize that my eyesight is horrible right? I'm surprised I can see how well this is playing."

Onyx coughed, focusing her attention to him as he spoke.

"There it is," he said, hoarse, holy, and fell laughing into a crater that smiled with him.

They should have stayed down. They did not.

"Rowan—tempo," Onyx said without looking, breath shredding. "Korrath—cut on three. Vic—plates. Make us fly. Morgana—spice it."

Aizawa's eyes narrowed. "He's leading mid-fight with damaged breathing."

Optimus nodded once. "Command clarity under pressure."

"Vic—plates. Make us fly." Herta echoed, amused. "He weaponized Victor's environment control."

Yang exhaled. "They're not just psychos. They're a squad."

Weiss whispered, almost sick, "A squad made out of disasters."

"But a squad that trusts each other," Ruby said softly. "That's why they're still standing."

Diego's tone stayed flat. "Trust makes monsters efficient."

Rowan clapped. BA-DOOM, BA-DOOM, BA-DOOM— A marching meter hammered the hall, her laughter breaking into wet coughs that painted her teeth. Korrath moved in the groove of it, the noble grind of muscle working around a dent, hips doing what a shoulder could not. Victor laid new plates under their feet, fingers buzzing with a tremor he counted around until counting cost him more than admitting it. Morgana salted their arcs with late-biting hexes traced with blistered wrists, each flourish a thin line of wince. Onyx was a metronome of malice, breath sawn into pieces, grin feral.

They hit her from everywhere at once—rows of teeth closing on a tide. It would have ended anyone else.

Grace drew a translucent rim across the floor, a line so perfect the hall itself held its breath. Inside it, time put on a uniform and gravity remembered an oath.

March 7th hugged her own shoulders. "That line in the floor... that's not fair. That's cheating."

"It's law," Welt corrected. "You can't 'fair' a law."

Herta smiled. "She defined a local rule-set. Everything inside obeys."

"Rowan's wave curved," Wise said, stunned. "Like it was... polite."

Zhu Yuan's voice went quiet. "She made violence behave."

Rowan's next wave slammed toward her and curved at the last instant, rolling around her ankles with a polite hummm. Korrath's edge forgot to be sharp within a finger of her throat and apologized to the air instead. Victor's plates kept their strength but lost their voice near her; momentum flickered where it wanted to sing. Morgana's hex lace sparked and then, embarrassed to be rude under a queen's gaze, winked out, the backlash making her blisters weep. Onyx still landed shots—because she let him. Each one stitched new hairline fractures into his knuckles and laced his ribs with that stubborn grain.

"And Onyx still lands shots," Fu Xuan noted. "Because she allows it."

Diego's eyes narrowed. "That's not mercy. That's evaluation."

Rowan gasped-laughed, "SHE'S—(cough) DANCING WITH—(cough) US!" and clapped again until the blood on her palm left red handprints on the sky.

"Then die dancing," Korrath gritted, and swung on the count of three with a joy that knew exactly how tired he would be tomorrow.

"Adjusting vector," Victor said, cool and strained. "Staggered burst in five—four—"

"Three kisses for the Queen," Morgana sang, breath hitching, and blew flaming hearts that turned into obedient dogs midair and sat, tongue lolling.

Grace walked through their weather like a curator between exhibits. She turned her palm a degree and Rowan's shockwave torused, a donut of force rolling by like a child's toy. She brushed the flat of Korrath's axe and relocated its center of mass two inches mid-swing; he overcommitted, almost stumbled, and laughed at himself as he recovered, as any honest soldier would. She flickered to Victor's shoulder—fip—laid a finger on his pulse, and every plate within arm's reach fell to mute; still there, still dangerous, denied a voice. A hellhound leaped and stopped midair when she looked at it, sat, and wagged, very proud of failing what it had been asked to do. Onyx hit her again, and again, and again, each blow a ledger entry; the debt accrued.

Then she tired, not in muscle—she had never been granted the courtesy of fatigue—but in politeness.

She lifted her hand and tightened the air. Overhead, space pinched into a lens so sharp the embers spun toward it like moths discovering a god. The Final Rift. Not a hole. A correction. It could have footnoted their existence into an ellipsis.

They all felt it in the meat of their hearts.

Grace closed it without using it.

No one breathed for a second.

Ruby's voice came out small. "She could've ended them."

Mash nodded slowly. "And she didn't."

"Stayed execution." Scáthach murmured. "That is a warrior's mercy. Not kindness. Respect."

Herta's eyes gleamed. "Or a test for later."

Welt's jaw was tight. "She's leaving them alive... carrying her residue."

"Like a message," Dan Heng added.

"..."

"That's the scariest kind of 'spare.'"

Chatterbox spoke up.

"So..."

Kafka looked intrigued.

"This is the power of a Herrscher. Quite an intriguing lot they are."

A favor. A stayed execution.

"She could have easily killed them...why didn't she?"

Thragg frowns at that, unable to understand why a being such as her would spare her enemies.

"Because she has no reason to."

Gojo said.

"Even if they turned her domain into a burning hellscape."

He cheerfully added.

The domain accepted the verdict and burned.

Pillars slouched into molten ribs. Star-glass ran like gold in a furnace. Fire wrote her name up the walls and then bowed its flames inward like courtiers.

"The once glorious realm of endlessness...now a scorching inferno of their internal worlds."

Korrath sat cross-legged in the rubble, chest heaving, grinning like a man with a story he would tell to sons he didn't have. A smear of violet frost traced the dent across his collar; deep breaths hitched where they shouldn't, and he refused to let anyone hear it. Rowan lay spread-eagle, thumb up, laughing in ragged barks that caught on the grit in her lungs and shook her anyway. Morgana's lashes were clotted with soot; her forearms wept from the blisters her own art had turned on her, and she looked like a woman who had finally been flirted with correctly. Victor lay in an elegant geometry of defeat, plates bowed into shapes even he had to admire; the tremor in his hands had faded to a ghost he would not forgive himself for. Onyx propped himself on his elbows in a crater and bared teeth sticky with blood, each breath a hired mule that came when called and kicked him in payment.

The theater didn't cheer. It exhaled.

Ruby had both hands over her mouth. "They're... smiling. Why are they smiling?"

Yang's voice was low. "Because they got what they came for. Proof."

Weiss looked pale. "That violet frost... it's still on him. It didn't go away."

Aizawa's eyes were hard. "Lingering debuff. It's not just 'damage.' She imposed a condition."

Herta leaned forward, fascinated. "Observe: healing slowed without being denied. She's not poisoning them. She's... taxing them."

March 7th shivered. "Okay, the 'breath is a hired mule' line is HORRIBLE. I hate that I understand it."

Dan Heng nodded once. "They're paying interest for stepping into her domain."

Mash's hands were clasped tight. "Morgana's arms... those blisters—"

Charlie's voice cracked a little. "She looks happy though. Like she finally met someone who understood her."

"'Flirted with correctly,'" Angel Dust repeated, then winced. "Okay, yeah—she's into that."

Loona's ears were pinned back. "I don't care if she's into it, that's still messed up."

Victor's stillness made Gudao swallow. "He's already replaying the fight in his head. The 'what I should've done.'"

Gudako whispered, oddly serious, "And he's going to hate himself for every millisecond he was late."

Welt's voice came out like stone. "That's what combat at this level becomes. Not courage. Not pride. Accounting."

A-Train eyes stayed on Onyx. "He's enjoying it. Even the pain."

Starlight muttered, half-impressed, half-wary. "That's not bravery. That's addiction."

Tempest's smirk was thin. "Welcome to the Reavers."

Grace descended as if the air had always planned to bring her down at that speed and not a breath more. Three thin gouges on her flank closed their last threads as they watched. The scuff on her jaw was a rumor; the rumor apologized and left.

Stelle blinked slowly. "Her injuries just... negotiated themselves into not existing."

Belle stared. "Did that scuff just get bullied out of reality?"

Herta's eyes glittered. "Self-correcting state. Her body is enforcing the 'ideal' like it's a rule, not a process."

Welt didn't look away. "That's the difference. Healing is biology. This is authority."

Kiana's name wasn't spoken — but the air around Welt got heavier anyway.

Himeko rested a hand on Welt's shoulder. "Welt..."

He didn't answer, but he didn't shrug her off either.

Eclipsera shortened toward its obedient form, gold leash-filament cinching gentle and tight. Her aura purred as if it had learned better manners in the last five minutes.

Meiko breathed out softly. "Her aura... it's purring."

Kafka smiled with amusement. "Predators purr too."

Akeno's tone was playful, but her eyes were sharp. "And she made her sword behave like a pet."

Diego deadpanned, "If your weapon obeys like that, it's not a weapon anymore."

"What is it then?" Ruby asked.

Diego didn't blink. "A promise."

She looked them over—monsters all, brave in the way only people with broken brakes could be—and let the gift sit on her face: recognition without concession.

The word monsters made the room react.

Midoriya's voice was small. "She called them monsters."

"And she wasn't wrong," Dabi muttered. "They loved it."

Optimus Prime rumbled thoughtfully. "She acknowledged their will... without validating their methods."

Jing Yuan nodded. "Recognition without concession. That is how you address dangerous equals without inviting them closer."

"Bravery. Folly. A death wish," she said, and the fire hushed to listen. "You wore all three well."

Shirou stared at the screen. "She's... not mocking them."

Archer's arms remained folded. "No. She's doing something far colder. She's being fair."

Mash whispered, "That's almost... mercy."

Vaggie exhaled. "Or the cleanest insult you can give: 'You mattered... and you still lost.'"

She turned the sword once and it made a sound like reversed rain.

"Record this," she said, and the hall complied, because there are some voices rooms were built to remember. "Not as triumph—such things are mortal—but as measurement. Five lights tried to redraw the night. You were not small. You were not unbrave. You were simply finite."

A ripple went through the audience.

Yang let out a breathy laugh. "That's the most respectful roast I've ever heard."

Bakugou scoffed automatically—then stopped. "...Tch."

Weiss murmured, "She's not praising them. She's... putting a ribbon on their insanity."

Herta tilted her head. "She is assigning them a classification."

Dan Heng's eyes narrowed. "And classifications can become cages."

Rowan's laughter on screen made Mina shake her head. "She is STILL laughing. Oh my god, she's insane."

"Insane," Jalter echoed, unimpressed. "But honest."

Gudako whispered, half-awed, "I would follow that speech into hell."

Gudao stared at her. "We are not doing that."

Especially since he was remembering Solomon...or rather Goetia posing as Solomon and during their battle in the Fourth Singularity where the King of Mages had destroyed them so utterly.

Grace (Void) speech was giving him Solomon vibes from back then.

Stelle pointed at the screen, baffled. "She just called them 'five lights.' That's... weirdly poetic."

Charlie's eyes shimmered. "Because she saw something in them, even if they're awful."

Boothill muttered, "Damn... that's a eulogy you get while still alive."

Jing Yuan's voice was calm. "She is telling them: 'You are not nothing. You are simply not enough.'"

Meiko smiles. "That's... brutal."

Diego's chuckles. "And accurate."

Onyx laughed and winced and cherished both. Morgana clapped with split palms, delighted tears bright as jewels in the soot. Korrath nodded like a clean eulogy had been laid across his chest and fit well. Rowan grinned at the fire and dared it to fall, thumb still raised, hand trembling like a flag. Victor's eyes did the math, accepted the theorem, and filed the cost.

"Look at that." Ruby whispered. "They're taking it like... a gift."

Weiss shook her head slowly. "They're receiving defeat like it's an honor."

Mash looked shaken. "Korrath's expression... he looks like he's satisfied."

Battle Beast grinned. "He is. He'll tell that story forever."

"Victor 'accepted the theorem.'" Herta repeated, pleased. "That's what scientists do when reality proves them wrong."

Grace (theater) squinted. "And Onyx is smiling like he got what he wanted... even though he lost."

Tempest chuckled. "Because he did."

"What did he want?" Belle asked.

Zero answered flatly. "To meet something that could tell him no."

"Strength is not the noise you make when you swing," Grace went on, voice dropping until it passed through them as pressure. "Strength is the silence that remains when the world learns it cannot move you. I am that silence."

The line hit like gravity.

Ruby's voice was barely there. "That's... terrifying."

Welt's jaw clenched. "Because it's true."

Herta nodded. "Power that doesn't need to announce itself."

Dan Heng murmured, "A blade that doesn't swing. A wall that doesn't move."

Jing Yuan's gaze stayed steady. "She isn't boasting. She's defining her nature."

Alice shivered. "A person shouldn't have to become that."

Diego's reply was instant, blunt. "They didn't give her a choice."

Vaggie muttered, furious, "She's what happens when you betray someone who was trying to save you."

She let a thread of warmth into her words because truth deserved a chair.

"You reached farther than most. I acknowledge the distance. But the road to me is longer than you can live. Tell whatever god counts your breaths:
You met the Queen of the Honkai,
and you made her draw breath once—
to compliment you."

Yang exhaled. "That's respect. Real respect."

Weiss nodded slowly. "She's telling them they mattered... which is the one thing people like them actually crave."

Aizawa's eyes narrowed. "It's also a containment strategy. Respect keeps them from doing something even dumber out of spite."

Herta's smile was thin. "She is encouraging controlled obsession instead of reckless repetition."

Mash whispered, "She's... managing them."

Optimus Prime rumbled. "Even in victory, she is acting as a guardian of balance."

Palpatine's eyes gleamed. "Or as a ruler curating her threats."

Zero didn't bother looking at him. "Stop making it weird."

"Never."

The flames leaned toward her as if they understood kneeling.

"Be proud of that. It will be the easiest thing that ever happens to you."

"This girl means business."

"Reavers," she said finally, the word tasting of the first time someone has called you something and meant it. "If you wish to stand again, learn the weight of what you challenged. If you wish to die, return as you are. This realm will remember your laughter. I already have."

The word Reavers landed differently now.

Midoriya's eyes were wide. "She said their name like it meant something. Something than what they are now"

"And they heard it like a blessing." Bakugou muttered.

Charlie whispered, "She remembered their laughter..."

Stelle blinked. "That's... unexpectedly human."

Welt's voice was rough. "That's the dangerous part. A Herrscher that still understands people."

Herta's gaze sharpened. "Or a sovereign who collects stories."

Uvos mused, almost soft by his standards, "She didn't erase them."

Tempest's grin returned. "No. She marked them."

Eclipsera dimmed to its dormant glow. As Grace turns around and walks into the flames The fires wrapping around her like obedient curtains. She stepped into them, and they folded around her and erased her outline without smoke, without ash—only the soft release of a world letting go of a breath it hadn't known it held.

Ruby finally lowered her hands. "She left like she was... part of the fire."

"Not part of it," Dan Heng corrected. "The fire behaved like it belonged to her."

Herta nodded. "Even the environment performed obedience."

Loona muttered, "I hate how pretty that is."

Angel Dust smirked. "I hate how hot that is."

Vaggie shoved him. "Shut up."

"Got to admit it."

Rachel said.

"That was a perfect dramatic exit."

The five lay there smiling because smiling was what was left when everything hurt and everything had been worth it. Their wounds began, slowly, to knit around the stubborn violet grain she had left in them. Breaths cost more than they should, strikes would have small prices collected for a while, gestures would stutter where they once sang.

They laughed anyway.

Mash's voice trembled. "They're going to carry that for a long time."

Aizawa nodded. "That's the point. She didn't break them. She changed their operating cost."

Herta looked delighted. "A permanent calibration."

Welt stared. "And they'll chase her again."

"Of course they will." Diego said. "They're alive. That means they're bored again."

Meiko smiles, "And she said... the realm will remember their laughter."

Grace hums to herself in fascination.

"Which means she'll remember them."

Zero's tone was flat. "And they'll treat that like an invitation."

Tempest chuckled. "It is."

Above them the sky of the hall admitted it was only a roof and turned back into stone. The pillars stopped pretending to be lightning. The constellations under glass remembered their maps.

When the wind finally came back, it carried no triumph—only arithmetic, the sum of everything that had been proved.

The domain cooled to star-metal. The silence remained.

The final lines left the theater feeling... wrong.

Ruby hugged Crescent Rose closer. "That ending feels like... a math problem."

Herta nodded, pleased. "It is. A proof."

Welt's voice was quiet. "A proof that they were finite."

"And a proof," Jing Yuan added, "that she chose not to erase them."

Charlie whispered, "So she's not evil..."

Vaggie answered, "She's just not safe in the sense that she may or may not annihilate you if you annoy her even just a little."

Diego's eyes stayed locked on the blanking screen. "She's a verdict. Not a villain."

Meiko exhaled softly. "And they're going to come back."

Zero leaned back. "Now you're learning."

And somewhere on the far side of the flames, the Queen walked on, unhurried, immortal, already forgetting the sting of her own blood and remembering every laugh.

The screen went dark.

For three full seconds, nobody spoke—like the room was waiting to see if the silence would stay.

Then the theater breathed back in.

Ruby's voice came first, small and raw. "They... laughed. After all that, they laughed."

Yang rubbed her arms like she could shake the feeling off. "That wasn't a fight. That was... a lesson."

Weiss swallowed. "A verdict."

"Correction," Herta said, already half out of her seat. "A measurement. She treated them like variables."

Welt didn't look away from the blank screen. "And she decided their value."

March 7th frowned. "Okay, no. That's creepy. I don't like people who talk like a final boss and then back it up."

Dan Heng's eyes stayed narrowed. "She didn't just win. She imposed ongoing cost. Delayed recovery. Stuttered movement. Reduced margin."

"Right," Herta said with that too-bright scientist gleam. "She wasn't trying to kill them. She was calibrating them."

Mash hugged her own arms. "But... why spare them?"

"Because she could," Morgan le Fay said sweetly, which made Saber stiffen so hard her chair creaked. "And because sometimes mercy is just another way to show superiority."

Saber glared. "Don't you start."

Gudako leaned forward, elbows on knees. "I'm sorry, but that was COOL. She literally said 'record this' like the universe was her secretary."

Gudao deadpanned, "And the universe said 'yes, ma'am.'"

Mini Da Vinci's eyes sparkled. "Her domain responded like a bounded field with personality. That is absolutely not normal."

Sion pinched the bridge of her nose. "Nothing about today is normal."

Aventurine chuckled, but it came out uneasy. "She's the type of woman that makes gamblers retire."

Himeko glanced at Welt again. "Welt... you're shaking."

"I'm not," he said immediately—then tightened his grip on his cane until the knuckles whitened. "I'm... remembering."

Stelle tilted her head. "So what's worse? That she's a Herrscher... or that she still talks like a judge?"

Welt answered without hesitation. "The second."

Across the hall, the tone split into camps like a crack down glass.

Midoriya's hands were still trembling, but his eyes were locked in. "She wasn't... mindless. She didn't slaughter them. She acknowledged them."

Bakugou scoffed on instinct. "...Tch."

Aizawa didn't blink. "She didn't need to be cruel. She chose precision. That's more frightening."

Endeavor stared downward, jaw clenched like he'd bitten into his own thoughts. "A power like that... with a will that doesn't bend..."

"Would you rather it be someone soft?" Dabi muttered, eyes half-lidded. "Soft people get used."

Charlie's voice was gentle but firm. "She was betrayed. That changes a person."

Vaggie nodded. "And it makes them stop asking nicely."

Lucifer exhaled through his nose. "I don't like anything that calls itself a verdict."

Adam leaned back, smirking. "I do."

Lute deadpans. "Of course you would, sir."

She said in deadpan amusement.

Then Herta snapped her fingers once—sharp. "The truly interesting part isn't just her though."

Half the room turned.

Herta's eyes glinted. "It's also Onyx."

That word alone made some of them shift in their seats.

Herta continued, clinical. "The Honkai rime should have clung. It should have behaved like it did on the others: a persistent tax. It didn't."

Welt's stare sharpened. "Resistance."

"Not immunity," Herta corrected immediately. "Resistance with attitude, as your host so eloquently phrased."

Tempest, lounging like he owned the air, smiled a little too knowingly. "Onyx is... special."

"Special like what?" Belle asked, face pale. "Special like 'don't poke it?'"

Zero didn't speak this time. He just watched.

Diego, arms folded, gave a lazy shrug. "Special like 'the universe doesn't get to tell him no easily.'"

Meiko shot him a look. "That is not comforting, love."

She deadpans.

Diego's reply was flat. "It's true."

"They were given great power." Optimus says. "And while, destructive and questionable. They have proven to be different from what people would call evil."

"They are warriors, Prime." Megatron says. "Ones worthy of recognition even from me."

And then, like a toddler kicking down a sandcastle just because it existed—

Homelander laughed.

It cut through the room, loud and syrupy and mean. A laugh built for cameras.

"Oh please," he said, spreading his arms like he was addressing an audience that paid to adore him. "So she's a moody space-witch with wings and a fancy chair. That's it? That's what everyone's shaking over?"

Several heads turned. A collective, slow, dangerous attention.

Homelander didn't notice—or pretended not to.

"She got handed power," he continued, voice dripping condescension. "She didn't earn anything. I'm the one who earned it. I'm the one who stands above normal people. Above monsters. Above—"

"The hell are you talking about?" Soldier Boy muttered, disgusted. "You were made in a lab, you pathetic child—"

Homelander snapped his head toward him, smile twitching. "And yet I'm still better than you."

Soldier Boy scowls at the punk insolence.

And he thought that he had an attitude.

The Deep snickered. "Yeah! And if those 'Reavers' think they're tough, put them in front of Vought's cameras and—"

"Err...guys?"

A-Train tries to speak but was ignored.

Firecracker chimed in, smug. "The whole thing's edgy. 'Reavers.' 'Queen.' 'Silence.' It's cringe."

"Unworthy." Stormfront scoffs. "That power belongs to someone more worthy, like one of us or Homelander."

Homelander nodded like he was passing judgment. "Exactly. They're all so dramatic. If that Grace woman walked into my world, she'd kneel. Just like everyone else."

He leaned forward, eyes glowing faintly. "And if she didn't? I'd break her. Take her crown. Take her—"

He stopped mid-word, because the air changed.

Not cold.

Not hot.

Heavy.

Like the room suddenly remembered what gravity was supposed to feel like.

Diego sighed.

Not angry. Not offended.

Just... tired. Annoyed, ticked off, done with everyone shit.

And somehow, he was making even the Vanguardians and Chaosbringers pause.

"I was hoping," Diego said flatly, "to watch in peace without somebody auditioning for 'Most Punchable Ego in the Multiverse.'"

Homelander turned, sneering. "And what are you going to do about it you powerless punk?"

Diego's green eyes glowed.

For the first time, they weren't just green.

They were marked.

Strange symbols flickered across his irises like seals waking up from a long sleep.

"Simple." Diego voice was low and even. "I'm going to show you just how I deal with unwanted problems in a more extreme way."

Meiko's eyes widened slightly—because she recognized that tone. The one Diego used when he'd decided someone's next sentence wasn't worth existing.

But instead of stopping him.

She just leaned back in her chair, chin in her palm, eyes bright with that oh no, you messed up kind of delight.

...And admittedly, it had the unintended effect of making her hot and weak in the knees when he gets like this.

Just like it was doing to Akeno, Kismet and some of the females in the room (that weren't taken).

Homelander scoffed. "You think I'm scared of you?"

Diego didn't answer him.

He just raised two fingers.

And tapped the air.

...KLIK.

The space behind him split like paper, not torn—unfolded.

Four presences stepped through without feet touching the floor.

A wind like sharpened steel prowled the theater.

A tide-pressure rolled in that made lungs hesitate.

A heat so pure it didn't burn—it commanded.

And a shadow of ancient shell-and-serpent that felt like a fortress deciding whether you were allowed inside existence.

Byakko (White Tiger): Guardian of the West, representing Metal, Autumn, and the color white.

Seiryu (Azure Dragon): Guardian of the East, representing Wood, Spring, and the color blue/green.

Suzaku (Vermilion Bird): Guardian of the South, representing Fire, Summer, and the color red.

Genbu (Black Tortoise): Guardian of the North, a tortoise intertwined with a serpent, representing Water, Winter, and the color black/violet.

They didn't roar.

They didn't need to.

Their arrival alone pinned half the room in place.

Ruby's voice came out as a squeak. "W-What—?"

Weiss couldn't breathe right for a second, the pressure from the four immense. "Wh-What are those?"

Raikou's eyes snapped wide with recognition. She recognized them.

"The Four Guardians..."

Gudao, Gudako, Mash and several others looked at her in shock.

"The..." Midoriya looked like he was about to pass out from information overload. "The FOUR GUARDIANS!? You mean Byakko, Seiryu, Suzaku, and Genbu!? Guardians of the four corners of the world?! Of the cosmic balance of Heaven and Earth!?"

"He can summon them!?"

Bakugou shouted. Not in anger, but in shock, in surprise that they were real.

Scáthach's spear angled down without her deciding to move it. "That pressure..."

Herta's pupils dilated with scientific hunger. "Contracts. Not metaphor. Binding law."

Welt's stare locked onto Diego like he'd never really looked at him until now. "You—you've been hiding that a secret?"

"Yes."

Diego says, not expending on that.

Why?

*FSH*

Because Homelander did what Homelander always did when confronted with something he couldn't control.

He attacked.

His eyes flared scarlet. "I AM THE—"

FWOOM!

Heat vision ripped across the theater, bright enough to make people shield their faces.

And it struck Byakko dead-on.

Byakko didn't dodge.

Didn't block.

Didn't even blink.

The beam hit the white tiger's fur and spread, skittering off like sunlight on snow—harmless, humiliated, rejected by something that had never agreed to be threatened by a lab-made bully.

Homelander's smile twitched. "What—"

Naoya Zenin snapped, sneering from his seat like he couldn't help himself. "Tch. Beasts. Legends. If it moves, it can be—"

He flicked his hand, cursed energy surging. Projection Sorcery snapped into place, the air around him turning into that cruel, cinematic "frame" logic—

—and Seiryu moved anyway.

Not faster.

Not broken.

Just... outside the premise.

The azure dragon's claw passed through Naoya's "frames" like they were a child's chalk lines.

Naoya's eyes widened. "Impossible—!"

"Possible," Diego muttered. "You're just not built for this."

Across the room, others tried to follow suit—arrogant mouths with powers and pride.

Firecracker spat something smug and venomous. Stormfront bristled. A few gods from the arena side barked indignation at mortals "playing deity." Loki started to shout—

—and the moment Loki's mouth formed the second syllable, Suzaku's presence flared.

Not an attack.

A temperature.

A sun-bird's attention.

Loki's confidence visibly shrank. "...Okay, maybe I—"

"Too late," Meiko said lightly, eyes gleaming. "He's already talking."

Diego's voice cut across the rising chaos, calm as a guillotine. "No one's power is being 'shut off.'"

He tilted his head, watching Homelander struggle to make the world obey him.

"You're just weak against the wrong things."

And then the punishment began.

Byakko moved first—quiet, efficient.

The white tiger crossed the distance without speed-lines or theatrics, and the sound of it was the only warning:

THUM.

Homelander got hit in the chest with something that felt like a mountain learning to punch.

He flew backwards, slammed into the floor, and bounced once like his body forgot it had invulnerability.

"G—" he choked, scrambling up, heat vision roaring again—

Byakko's paw came down on Homelander's shoulder.

Not crushing.

Pinning.

Like reality itself had decided: stay.

Homelander trembled, rage and panic mixing in his face. "GET OFF ME—!"

"Shh," Diego said, bored.

Genbu answered him instead.

The tortoise's aura rolled out—black ocean-deep—and the arrogant cluster felt their lungs remember pressure. Gravity didn't spike; it simply became honest.

A-Train tried to launch, only because he was expected to help Homelander.

He moved.

He still had his speed.

But it was like sprinting through wet concrete while a god watched you with disappointed patience.

He faceplanted.

Hard.

The Deep tried to posture and immediately found himself pressed into his chair like the chair had become a confession booth.

Firecracker's power flared—

—and died against Genbu's presence not by suppression, but by irrelevance.

She could throw her weight around all she wanted.

It didn't matter when the room itself didn't respect her.

Seiryu turned its head toward Naoya.

Naoya snapped, trying to reposition, trying to "frame" his way out.

The dragon's breath rolled over him—storm-scented and sharp—

—and Naoya's cursed technique worked.

He still moved.

He still forced the world into his rules.

But Seiryu moved with him like a sky that did not care about your calendar.

A single claw-tap hit him in the forehead.

Not enough to kill.

Enough to make his soul feel like it got slapped.

Naoya hit the floor and skidded, eyes wide with furious disbelief.

"...What are you?" he hissed, shaking.

Seiryu didn't speak.

It just watched him the way storms watch paper houses.

Suzaku handled the mouths.

The vermilion bird didn't crush. Didn't maim.

It humiliated.

Every time someone tried to shout over the room—every time arrogance tried to turn into noise—Suzaku's heat kissed their tongue and teeth with a sharp, scorching lesson.

Not enough to disfigure.

Enough to make them choke, gag, and rethink the concept of speaking.

Homelander tried again, spitting blood and ego. "I'm the Homel—"

Suzaku's gaze flicked.

SZZT.

Homelander yelped like a man who'd put his hand on a stove. His pride evaporated into raw animal frustration.

"Good," Meiko said softly, satisfied.

Then—like the closing stamp on a document—

the sunlight arrived.

A warm gold ring opened behind Meiko, not violent, not loud.

Inevitable.

A nine-tailed fox stepped through—radiant, serene, regal. The air smelled like dawn and incense and the moment right before a prayer.

Amaterasu's avatar.

Tamamo's entire posture changed. Her teasing expression cracked into something reverent and stunned. "No summoning circle... no vessel... no Saint Graph anchoring..."

Mini Da Vinci's eyes went huge. "She's manifesting with no system support. That's—"

Sion's voice came out strained. "That violates half the laws I know."

Gudako whistled softly. "We've met divinities, but... not like this. Not walking in like she owns the concept of 'here.'"

Gudao nodded slowly, tense. "Because she does."

Amaterasu didn't attack.

She didn't need to.

She lifted her head—and golden light spread outward into a barrier, a quiet dome that wrapped the whole punishment zone like a shrine boundary.

Not a cage for Diego.

A guardrail for everyone else.

A statement: no collateral.

Inside the light, the arrogant could still use their powers.

They could burn, strike, scream, curse, lash out.

Their power just... didn't carry weight against what stood above them.

Homelander fired again—full blast, red-hot, furious—

—and the beam hit the sun-barrier and bent harmlessly into the air like a tantrum being redirected by a patient parent.

Amaterasu's voice was calm, gentle—and utterly final.

"Let justice be carried out," she said.

Not permission.

Recognition.

Diego nodded once, as if that was all he needed.

Then he looked down at Homelander—pinned, battered, still trying to claw his way back to "superior."

"You watched a queen spare monsters," Diego said. "And you still couldn't shut up."

Homelander snarled, shaking. "I'm better than you—better than them—better than—"

Byakko's paw pressed slightly harder.

Homelander's ribs creaked.

Not breaking—warning.

"Here's your problem," Diego continued. "You think power makes you important."

He gestured lazily to the Guardians.

"They're not here because I'm 'strong.' They're here because I'm bound. Because I keep my word. Because I understand consequence."

He leaned closer, voice dropping.

"And because people like you only learn one language."

Homelander tried to spit back an insult—

—and Suzaku's heat made him choke on it.

Naoya, bruised and seething, forced himself up on one elbow, eyes burning with humiliation.

"You think you can—"

Seiryu's shadow fell over him.

Naoya stopped talking.

Smartest thing he'd done all day.

Amaterasu's barrier shimmered once, subtly—like approving the restraint.

Meiko's smile turned bright, almost sweet.

"Continue," she said to Diego. "They've earned it."

Diego straightened, then snapped his fingers once.

The Guardians moved as one—coordinated, myth-precise—

A final sequence of punishment that left the arrogant cluster battered, silenced, and shaken in ways that had nothing to do with losing their powers and everything to do with realizing:

They were not the top of any food chain that mattered.

When it was done, Byakko stepped back. Genbu's weight eased. Seiryu's storm-pressure faded. Suzaku's heat retreated to a simmer.

Amaterasu's barrier remained for one breath longer—until she was satisfied the lesson would stick.

Then the golden dome dissolved like sunrise mist.

"Foolish mortals."

Amaterasu voice, majestic, regal, powerful spoke up.

The RoR Gods could only stare in a flurry of mixed emotions as they stared at this alternate version of the Amaterasu that they knew.

"Always throwing stones at their glass houses." She said with a hint of amusement. "Always thinking that might makes right. By the Heavens, you mortals are getting more and more funny with each passing era."

They had the actually audacity to glower at the Goddess of the Sun.

Stormfront managed to cough out as she glares at Diego.

"You...what are you!?" She snarls. "What kind of creature are you?!"

"..."

Diego gives her an impassive stare. His eyes glowing the kanji of the four guardians.

"I am the bridge that connects Heaven and Earth."

Diego towers over her and the other beaten and arrogant worms.

"I am the human who heralds the return of the Gods back home. To walk among humans and the supernatural once more."

He says.

"And you? You all are arrogant fools."

He says as he turns back. The Four Guardians letting go as Amaterasu released the barrier.

"Got you, you arrogant punk!"

Homelander roars as he flies at Diego.

BAM!!

"GAH!!"

Only for Dystopian to punch him hard.

"Now, now." Dystopian smiles wickedly. "That kid is a lot more interesting than I thought and it would be a pity for him to die so soon."

"Stay out of this vill-ARGH!!"

Qrow punches him in the face.

"You are so annoying."

"Why you!!"

It turned into a brawl as many pummel down Homelander and the other assholes that needed a lesson in humility.

Meanwhile.

"What is your power!?"

Midoriya asks looking up at a startled Diego.

"How is it that you can summon the four guardians!? How is it that you THE AMATERASU!?"

"Bastard." Bakugou mutters begrudgingly impressed. "Explain."

"YEAH!"

Gudako shouted.

"I want to hear this story!"

"You have Lady Amaterasu...as a contract."

Tamamo-no-Mae says numbly.

"Actually, Meiko has her as her partner."

Diego corrected.

"She's been blessed by Amaterasu herself. I got blessed by the four guardians."

"EH!?!??!"

The theater was quite lively after that.

"..."

Zero chuckles in amusement.

"Well...I think we can call it a day."

He says.

"You think?"

Tempest said, shaking his head with his usual smirk.

"That was fun."

Seraphim said.

"VERY."

Demo chuckles.

"Yeah, yeah." Zero rolls his eyes. "Let's just take a break."

"Before I do that."

Tempest said as he begins cracking his knuckles.

"I think there are some scumbags that need an ass beating."

With that, he and some of the others joined in the beating.

Zero sighs with a smile.

"What a day."

DONE!!

...

I don't believe it.

Even now...I don't believe it.

Over 20,000 words.

And I swore to make this one short!!!

Well...had to do the lore intro since I don't think everyone that does read this book reads my friend Tempest book so the Reavers might have been confusing without the lore.

And yeah, Grace (Herrscher of the Void).

One of my favorite variations of her.

And as you can see, I tried to do a Solomon type speech for when they were in the Fourth Singularity (London).

I saw the anime clip of it and I loved it.

A shame that YouTube removed it and I can't show it now. But what can you do?

Again...can't believe I went this long.

Oh well, enjoy it cause I'm going to try to update some of my other books.

Have a good day/night!!