Bzzt! Crack!
The aftereffects of Mei's slash lingered on the giant stems. Red lightning danced along the deep cuts its intense heat sizzling the air. The glowing sparks burned so hot they began to vaporize the stems green fibers turning to ash as the wounds smoldered in the pocket dimension's trembling light.
"Wow that was really fast" Kiana said in amazement while still firing her guns at the Honkai beasts.
From her view Mei that running ahead of her earlier suddenly vanished like she teleported with a crackle of lightning.
Without Kiana noticing the giant stems were sliced with a glowing wound visible from her spot.
"[Still that doesn't seem to work]" Sora said.
She was right. The wound began regenerating. Even as the slash's red lightning burned the stems vaporizing green fibers the flames faded with the lightning and the stems became whole again.
Mei saw her attack was ineffective. She flashed back to Kiana's side regrouping.
"Doesn't work. We probably need bigger firepower than my slash" Mei said to Kiana appearing beside her.
"Well I'm kinda running out of fuel. I can't use my special attack to destroy that thing" Kiana said.
Seeing tons of Seraph-class Honkai beasts swarming in the air Mei gripped Yamato's sheath. She channeled her energy into the blade its purple glow flaring. With multiple quick slashes she sent arcs of lightning energy slicing around her cutting down the beasts while carefully avoiding Kiana.
"Nice Mei now what should we do about that?" Kiana said pointing at the giant flower.
The only Honkai beasts left were the non-flying ones on the ground mixed with people turned into zombies. So they could focus on the giant flower for now.
"Maybe we can keep damaging it and hope it runs out of energy to regenerate..." Mei said thinking of a few plans.
But before she could finish the entire pocket dimension shook again.
Mei and Kiana froze noticing the shaking. They turned their eyes toward the giant flower.
The shaking came from the giant flower. It sensed Mei and Kiana planning to destroy it again and began protecting itself.
From the main stems smaller stems shot out twisting and thrusting toward Mei and Kiana to attack them.
Both girls froze startled by the sudden assault. Mei vanished with her lightning speed while Kiana leapt to the side dodging the strikes.
The stems couldn't find Mei so they turned chasing Kiana instead.
"What the hell!" Kiana shouted running through the air. She fired her guns at the stems trying to destroy them but every hit regenerated instantly.
Kiana struggled to escape her energy too low to teleport. A stem nearly caught her before the sound of multiple slashes echoed.
Mei appeared behind the stems slashing them into pieces with Yamato's glowing blade saving Kiana from their grasp.
"Kiana are you alright?"
"Yes I'm fine. Thanks again. I'm really holding you back huh at this point" Kiana said.
"Don't say that. We need to work together. Let's do the same thing. I attack you cover me" Mei said. Lightning sparked around her body Honkai energy surging as she rushed forward toward the giant flower.
If one cut wouldn't finish it she'd slash it over and over until it stopped regenerating or better yet cut it down completely.
"Haaahhh!" Mei shouted charging with Yamato raised.
Mei charged toward the giant stems Yamato glowing with lightning. But as she got close green gas poured from the stems wrapping them in a toxic cloud. The gas spread fast surprising Mei.
Kiana watched Mei vanish into the thick green mist. "Mei!" she screamed worried.
A flash of lightning broke out from inside the gas. Mei stop a few meters away coughing hard. The gas clung to her its poison spreading through her body. Even as a Herrscher it weakened her.
"[Mei we inhaled poison. It's spreading fast through us]" her other personality said voice full of concern.
"Don't come near me Kiana!" Mei shouted between coughs. "Stay away from that gas. It's poison!"
Mei struggled to stand gripping Yamato. The poison made her legs heavy. The giant flower loomed its stems pulsing with Honkai energy.
Kiana stayed back her guns lowered. The gas grew thicker glowing faintly. The ground shook as the flower's roots moved below.
Both Mei and Kiana were at a disadvantage. Not because they were weaker than the giant flower but because they didn't know its abilities.
Kiana's energy was nearly gone and Mei's strength faded from the poison spreading through her. Sensing their weakness the giant flower attacked again sending multiple stems shooting toward them.
"Mei watch out!" Kiana shouted.
The stems focused on Mei since she was closer lunging at her with sharp tips. The rest aimed for Kiana twisting through the air.
Mei forced her poisoned body to move. With all her might she dodged to the side soaring higher up. She swung Yamato deflecting the stems she couldn't avoid her lightning flickering weakly.
Kiana wanted to help Mei seeing her struggle to evade the stems. But she had her own problem as the remaining stems shot toward her.
"Damn!" she shouted backflipping in the air to dodge their sharp tips.
Kiana twisted and flipped through the air dodging the sharp stems lunging at her. Her yellow eyes darted toward Mei worrying about her condition as the poison slowed her movements.
Kiana planned to use her last bit of energy to blast the stems with one big attack and pull Mei out of the pocket dimension trapping the giant flower inside.
But before she could act a loud thud echoed through the air and that was Mei being struck by a stem and thrown down crashing into a ruined building below.
"Mei!" Kiana yelled her focus slipping. The stems seized the moment wrapping around her tightly squeezing her body.
"Let go of me!" Kiana struggled trying to force a teleport with her remaining energy.
But before she could break free the stems yanked her upward then slammed her hard into the ground below.
"[Hey Kiana that was a hard slam. Are you alright?]" Sora's voice echoed in Kiana's head.
The stems had slammed Kiana so hard into the ground a crater formed around her. She lay in the center battered and bruised.
"Cough cough I'm not. My whole body hurts bad. I didn't have time to shield myself during the slam" Kiana said.
Her body was bloody her Herrscher outfit torn. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth down her chin.
Honkai beasts on the ground started moving toward her sensing her weakness now that she was down.
Kiana tried to stand hoping to reach higher ground to avoid their attacks. But her legs wouldn't move leaving her helpless.
"[Kiana switch with me!]" Sora said urgently as the Honkai beasts closed in.
"And then what?" Kiana asked.
"[I'm gonna push the core to the max]" Sora replied.
"Are you crazy? That's too dangerous!" Kiana shouted.
"[No time to argue Tuna. It's both of us or just me. Switch now or I'll force it!]" Sora said. She rarely took control without asking knowing Kiana hated sudden switches.
"Hell no! This isn't some anime where the hidden power personality sacrifices themselves in the last episode so the main character survives!" Kiana said.
"We're gonna survive. All of us!" Kiana's face burned with determination staring at the countless Honkai beasts closing in.
Kiana burned with determination ready to fight the Honkai beasts with all her might. Suddenly a laser cannon blasted from nowhere vaporizing a beast in front of her.
The blasts kept coming one after another shredding more beasts. Kiana froze confused looking around for the source.
"KIAAANAAAAAA!"
Then she heard Mei's scream calling her name. Looking up she saw Mei in a broken window of a ruined building waving her hand urgently.
Mei gestured for Kiana to come quickly. Kiana nodded using her last bit of energy to teleport to the window.
The moment she arrived Mei grabbed her pulling her deeper into the building. They ran through shattered halls dodging debris.
They didn't get far before Mei collapsed her body trembling from the poison still inside her. Kiana knelt beside her worry flooding her face checking Mei's condition. "Mei are you okay?" she asked voice shaking.
"I'm fine don't worry" Mei said weakly forcing a smile through her coughs.
Suddenly a small girl's voice cut through. " The Bronya observes Subject Mei is not fine. Subject Mei requires an antidote or removal of the poison from her body."
Kiana spun toward the voice startled. She only brought Mei into this pocket dimension so who else could be here? All she saw was a short young girl with light gray hair and darker gray eyes. Her drill-shaped ponytails bounced as she floated carried by a robot.
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"Why is there a little girl here? I swear I only brought people with Honkai energy inside this dimension except for my old man" Kiana said confused.
The three of them rested in the ruined building. Mei was too weak from the poison to fight and Kiana had no energy left.
Both had lost their Herrscher forms reverting to their normal clothes from before the battle.
"I don't know either but she patched me up when I crashed into the building" Mei said.
When Mei was thrown earlier the little girl saved her by bandaging her wounds and giving first aid. She couldn't help with the poison though.
Kiana's wounds were also bandaged by the girl as they rested.
"Wait a minute don't tell me a little girl like you has Honkai energy? You have resistance to Honkai radiation at that age?" Kiana said realizing how the girl got into the pocket dimension.
During the transfer Kiana focused on pulling in those with Honkai energy like infected people and beasts. She didn't expect this girl to have it too.
"Subject Kiana is perceptive. Subject Kiana seems different from the one in rumors" the little girl said her voice flat and emotionless.
"What's that supposed to mean? Do you think I'm stupid or something?" Kiana snapped.
The girl wasn't wrong. Kiana was different from reports because Reina taught her about Honkai and more after school things not covered in class.
"Calm down Kiana she's not wrong..." Mei said trying to soothe her.
"You too Mei?" Kiana said.
"By the way thank you for saving us. If you don't mind what's your name?" Mei asked the girl shifting the topic.
"Bronya. The name is Bronya. Call Bronya that" she said.
"Huh why do you talk so weird? I noticed you keep talking like that and your tone is odd too" Kiana asked.
"This is how the Bronya talks Subject Kiana" Bronya answered her tone still flat with no emotion.
"See that's just so weird! Your tone has no feelings behind it!" Kiana said.
"Kiana stop it. Maybe she has some kind of circumstance. It's not good to pry into someone you just met" Mei said to Kiana. But then she started coughing again really bad.
The more time passed the worse Mei's condition got. The poison was being held back by her other personality for now.
"Just wait a few minutes Mei. After I have enough energy I'm gonna bring us out of this pocket dimension. Then we can go to Reina" Kiana said.
"Does Subject Kiana have the ability to do that?" Bronya asked her tone flat.
"Of course this is my dimension. I can decide who enters and who leaves... well only temporarily anyway" Kiana said scratching her cheek.
"What? What does that mean?" Mei asked noticing Kiana's odd wording.
"It's like this" Kiana said. She explained to Mei that she could only maintain the pocket dimension for 30 minutes. After that it would vanish and everything would return to the real world. If they didn't deal with the Honkai here especially the giant flower they'd all go back and cause more chaos.
"How much time do we have now?" Mei asked.
"Like 20 minutes at most" Kiana said.
"20 minutes?" Mei said shocked.
At their peak they could've beaten the Honkai in 20 minutes. But now weakened they couldn't fight and could only hide.
"Calm down Mei. I'm sure in 20 minutes Reina will come and beat them all no problem. Don't you remember what she said before she left?" Kiana said.
Before leaving Reina told them she had a plan in her dimension. They just needed to protect people and avoid killing zombies until she returned. Kiana had protected the survivors by moving all the Honkai into her pocket dimension so the uninfected wouldn't be harmed.
"So all we can do is wait for Reina to come back?" Mei asked Kiana.
While Kiana and Mei talked Bronya listened silently. Her mother Cocolia ordered her to capture Mei and if possible gather information on Reina. Cocolia couldn't find any trace of Reina like she appeared in the world with no past.
From their talk Bronya noted Kiana and Mei fully trusted Reina. They had no doubt she'd return and not abandon them.
"Bronya is curious. Do Subject Kiana and Subject Mei truly trust Subject Reina to return and not flee?" Bronya asked suddenly.
Her question made Kiana and Mei stop talking. They turned toward her.
"That's pretty random. Why are you asking that Bronya?" Mei said back.
"Bronya is curious about this Subject Reina" Bronya said.
"Hehe unfortunately Reina will never do that. She's not gonna run away by herself. We share a special bond that you little girl will never understand" Kiana said with a smug look.
"Kiana stop it" Mei said nudging Kiana. "Just like Kiana said we all share a special bond that can't be broken easily. Bronya you don't need to worry. She'll come and save us" Mei said smiling and patting Bronya's head.
While they bonded in the ruined building the giant flower outside stirred. Its unbloomed bud slowly moved petals beginning to open. From the gaps someone could be seen inside curled up like they were sleeping.