My Dearest Brother

Mikael glanced down, his gaze lingering for two seconds. After confirming Mobius had truly passed out, the breath he'd been holding finally eased out.

Yeah, things are chaotic enough as it is. If Mobius were to, like, freak out on top of everything, I really wouldn't be able to control the situation. Yeah, yeah! That's how it is.

But…

"Good job, Mobius, you totally nailed your mission!"

The Fifth Herrscher frowned, sizing Mikael up and down with a knowing look.

"You… you're the First Herrscher?"

Mikael furrowed his brow. There was something strange about the Herrscher before him… how to put it… something felt different from the previous Herrschers, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

"Let me think…"

The Fifth Herrscher covered her forehead, a hint of pain flickering across her face.

Suddenly, she clapped her hands together, tilting her head as she asked in a light tone:

"Ah! Right, you're called Mikael, isn't it!"

Mikael finally understood the source of that strangeness – compared to the previous three Herrschers, the Fifth Herrscher seemed to possess real emotions right from the start.

Yeah, real emotions. That was the key difference.

The Second Herrscher hadn't shown much emotion at all, and neither had the Third or Fourth, only getting angry right at the end.

But the Fifth Herrscher… she was like a… real girl.

"Is that so…"

Mikael had been expecting a Herrscher with emotions, but he hadn't expected it to happen this soon…

No, maybe it wasn't soon. It was also possible that in the original timeline, the Fifth Herrscher hadn't even gotten a word in before getting instantly vaporized by some polite dude.

But this was fine too. The Herrscher didn't seem to want to fight him right away; she seemed to want to talk. Perfect. He could use the chat to stall and give Ellie, Himeko, and Mobius time to bug out.

He picked up the white lab coat from the ground and draped it over Mobius, then gently shoved her into the spatial rift. He was being super careful, while the Fifth Herrscher just watched with a smile, not making a move.

Even as Elysia, with Mobius slung over her shoulder and Himeko hobbling beside her, hauled ass out of there, she didn't lift a finger.

"What do you want to say?"

Mikael bent down and picked up the broken Surtur, deliberately turning his back to her. But forget attacking, the Fifth Herrscher wasn't even giving off any "I'm gonna kill you" vibes.

"Mikael, you look totally lost…"

"Spit it out. What do you want?"

"Don't you get it yet, Mikael? You're the First Herrscher, and I'm the Fifth Herrscher. We're family—you're the big bro, and I'm the little sis. Isn't that how families work? So why are you helping the enemy kill your own blood? Come on, bro, ditch them. Join us again, and we can fix everything that went wrong."

"?"

A giant question mark flashed in Mikael's brain.

"Seriously? If that's your idea of trash talk, it's seriously weak."

He'd hoped that as the first Herrscher with actual human-like emotions, she'd have something interesting to say. But nope, turns out she was just as immature as a toddler.

Oh, wait, duh. She didn't really have emotions. It was just some random chaotic consciousness that jacked into the Herrscher body, downloaded the host's memories and subconscious, and was now doing a terrible impression of human behavior.

Terrible and clunky.

That explained why her words and tone could be all hyped up, but her face was blank, and then when she was talking calmly, she'd suddenly throw in random dramatic expressions.

Because she was just faking it. She didn't have a clue what any of it meant. And faking it never gets you the real deal.

Got it.

Mikael raised the broken sword, the jagged edge aimed straight at the Herrscher's throat. "You know damn well I personally took out the Second and Third Herrschers, and I was half the reason the Fourth bit the dust. Knowing that, you still wanna stand there acting all casual? You think I can't kill you?"

"No, no, no, my sweet brother—you're right, you did kill my three older sisters, but I choose to believe that was just a temporary screw-up!"

She gazed at Mikael with what was supposed to be deep affection, even fearlessly stepping closer.

Her pale cheek brushed against the cold Surtur blade, even wiping off some of the frost stuck to it.

She put on this whole dramatic act, reaching out to cup Mikael's face in her hands.

"My dear brother… look what humans have done to you! You turned your back on your own family, risked your neck over and over to save humanity, and what did they give you? The cold shoulder and suspicion, right? Don't worry, I won't grill you about why you went soft on humans way back when, but I can't stand to see you get hurt anymore…"

"My brother, humans don't deserve your help. So, come to my side, and let's trash this world together—"

Mikael stared at the girl's face, still smeared with faint bloodstains, which actually made her look kinda tragically beautiful. And… why did her face seem so familiar?

He felt the Herrscher's icy hands slowly sliding down, caressing his chin, gliding over his neck, and heading south towards his chest.

Without another thought, he clenched his hand into a claw and went for her chest right back.

"Bang!"

The sound of their collision ripped through the air, throwing them apart. Mikael snorted.

"That's your big emotional confession? You wanted to have a heart-to-heart?"

"Weren't you trying the same thing?"

Both Herrschers had silently gone for the same play, trying to use the "intimate moment" as cover to rip out the other's Herrscher core. Predictably, they both failed.

"Enough of the crap, Herrscher."

Mikael raised the broken sword again, pointing it right at her.

He blurted out a line that felt like it belonged to someone else:

"Friend or foe, pick one."

The second he said it, a blizzard of wind and ice shards exploded outwards. Mikael wasn't backing down, flames erupting from his sword, the broken blade reforming in fire, stretching out a hundred meters long.

"Boom!"

Mikael was blasted backwards, tumbling across the ground twice before skidding across the slick ice, trying to get some space.

"Ha— ha— " The Herrscher strolled out of the smoky blast zone, chasing after him at a casual pace. She chuckled awkwardly a couple of times, then threw her hands up in a "whatever" gesture. "From the second you didn't jump me, but instead played along with my little time-wasting chat, I knew it—my sweet brother, you're already running on fumes after dealing with that Maheśvara beast, aren't you?"

"Yep, pretty much."

Taking a couple of lazy steps, roughly gauging his position, Mikael suddenly stopped dead.

"Tch! Always gotta act so cocky… just how much fight do you really have left, First Herrscher?!"

With the Ice Herrscher's roar, tiny snowflakes ripped through the air like white streaks, weaving together like the sky was tearing apart in strips of cloth.

The Herrscher's stray Honkai energy instantly dropped the temperature to a hundred below zero. Mikael was already encased in thick frost, almost frozen solid.

"…You still don't get it…"

Mikael forced a grin, his cheek muscles twitching, making the icicles hanging from his nose wiggle.

Azure patterns flared to life all over his body. A southern wind slammed in from the coast, smashing into the Fifth Herrscher's icy blast. Where they collided, space itself seemed to crack, and even the ice split open into a deep chasm.

After a short standoff, the power over wind and water won out.

The blizzard faded away, and even the north wind shut up.

When the last of the dust and mist cleared, the whole scene was laid bare—

Across the ice stood thousands of towering Soulium Crosses, each one holding down a screaming Maheśvara, with just a few stray clones still wandering around aimlessly.

And in the center of the eighteen Soulium Pillars Mikael had set up, dozens of even thicker golden chains clamped down on a Maheśvara that looked just like the others. As the view cleared, its pink eyeball, gouged out and raw, was staring right out of its forehead.

"What the—!"

The Herrscher's face went white. Suddenly, it clicked—

She thought Mikael was playing level one, stalling for time because he was too drained from fighting Maheśvara to fight her.

She thought she was playing level two, confidently moving in for the kill after figuring out Mikael was weak.

But turns out, Mikael was playing level three. He was totally drained from holding down Maheśvara, and he really didn't have much juice left to fight her…

But she was still the one getting played.

Because the power Mikael used to trap Maheśvara wasn't wasted effort; it was now a trap designed for the Herrscher.

"Well then, have a blast, enjoy the show, Ms. Ice Herrscher… or should I say, my sweet little sister."

A double Imaginary Space Barrier slammed down, sealing off the whole seaside area, along with thousands of Maheśvara clones. From the outside, it looked like just another ruined wasteland, but inside, it was a pocket dimension.

As Mikael's voice trailed off, the golden chains snapped apart, and the towering Soulium Pillars crashed down, one after another. And the things they'd been holding prisoner were finally "free."

"Need a reminder? The Imaginary Space Barrier blocks outside Honkai energy, so in here, it's you and Maheśvara, fighting over scraps of Honkai energy to survive. No chance in hell you'll be making friends—oh, and it just got a serious beatdown from me, so it's probably not in a friendly mood. So…"

"Bye-bye!"

In a flash of gold light, Mikael vanished, leaving the Fifth Herrscher standing alone, staring down thousands of charging Maheśvara, completely and utterly screwed.