Divine Key

***

What was happening here? Einstein was dumbfounded. "This is how the best and most important people on this planet function??' She thought.

Thor and Elysia were teasing Eden, Aurora and Vill were having a staring contest that could devolve into a food fight any second (Which it wouldn't. Thor cooked breakfast.), Himeko and Hua seemed the most normal and modest though Hua seemed to be trying to be like Himeko a bit too much, even copying her mannerisms. 

Kevin and Su were silently eating, this was a rare thing for them, they didn't have access to Thor's cooking enough so they made sure to enjoy it. Mei was eating while going over some data with the newly joined Mobius and Klein. Mobius started joining breakfast the moment she knew Thor was cooking it.

Now back to the newly arrived Einstein. From yesterday she knew they were a unique group, but she thought that was a rarity not them being like this all the time. She expected rigid cold, stall environments not this.

'Should I just take this to go?' She wondered for her own personal sanity. She saw Aurora throw a streak of lightning at Vill who blocked it but was launched back off her chair. The laugh from the two set in. 'I'll take this to go.'

(Un)Fortunately just as she turned to leave a hand landed on her shoulder. Turning back she saw Thor's face. "Where are you going, Ein? Why don't you join us for breakfast?"

"I was just go–" She tried to explain but Thor cut her off.

"Come on. Join us. If you're going to be working with us, you might as well eat with us at least." Thor turned her around and gently guided her to the table.

Einstein didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this. She had been trapped and couldn't say anything. Especially not when Elysia was giving her that puppy eyes look the moment Thor brought her over. 'Fuck you Thor.' She grimaced.

When it all ended however she will admit it was an enjoyable experience. Of course she would never say that to Thor's face with how he had that teasing smile when she let out a smile at the atmosphere.

***

Mei was nervous. Like really nervous. She and Vill-v had just created the mold for the first keys prototype. It was a cubic shaped mold that was made of purely 100% Soulium, everything was made of soulium. Yeah they need Thor's help to make a few bits and pieces work, but Vill did most of the programming side while Mei was in charge of the AI prototype.

Vill who held the case that held the first core stared at the 1st Key's casing. "Mei. Are you sure you want to do this now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, why not wait for Thor, Aurora, Elysia, Mobius or even Eden? Having just one of them here in case things go wrong. You know how little Honkai resistance you have." Vill questioned. Mei paused in response, she was running the scenarios through her head, but in the end she decided not to wait.

"It'll be fine," Mei said and went back to doing the final bits and pieces before they placed the 1st core into it.

They couldn't even test the AI as it would be using the core's energy to power itself.

–Shhhh–

The lab door opened as Eden walked through, a scowl on her face. "Thor was right. Mei, what are you doing?! We agreed to do this tomorrow. You know how easily things could go wrong." Vill tried to make herself smaller, hoping not to be noticed.

"And you. Vill. Thor knows you're only doing this as Mei wouldn't stop anyway, but at least maybe just ping Aurora a message, she's been lazy lately, only doing training with Thor and Elysia." Vill only offered a wry smile, feeling idiotic at how simple it would be to solve. Aurora could be here within seconds with just a simple message, yet she couldn't even do that.

Eden then made a grasping motion pulling the case containing the first core to her. "Look, Mei. We know you're worried, with how randomly the fourth appeared, you've been stressing over this, but at least be safe about it."

Mei stayed silent but gave a nod of acknowledgement. She then inputted a few things on the console as the machine stopped once it made the mold for the first key.

Afterwards, she sat down with Vill as they were further reprimanded by Eden, before she left with the 1st core.

***

A few months later

"Kevin, do you really have to go first?" Mei asked worried about a procedure she herself confirmed, but she'd ignore that tid bit for now.

"Why not let… Su be the guinea pig?" She said,

"Hey!" Su interjected, "Don't bring me into this, the beast isn't even compatible with me." Seriously, does this woman become an idiot this easily?

"Dr Mei. Mr Kaslana is the only one compatible with this Pravati beast. While Thor is compatible with all due to his uniqueness, he specified he will only fuse with a beast linked to adaptation." Klein brought up the panel showing Kevin's 99.5% Compatibility with Pravati compared to everyone else's being below 30%.

Kevin held Mei's hand and reassured her somehow, before stepping into the pod.

–Shhhh–

"Mobius!" A wild Eden appeared.

"What?" Eden had interrupted her just as she was to push the goddamn button.

"Where's Thor? I can't find him and the mental link has been cut off."

"He's trying to calibrate the 2nd Key. He can only do that when Aurora is around. Until we calibrate the first key properly we can't even start on the 4th yet." She pulled up the sat feed and saw that he had left a few hours ago with Aurora.

"They left a few hours ago, they'll be back by the time Kevin's surgery finishes."

Eden nodded slowly as she took a seat.

Mobius's finger hovered above the button as she glanced at Kevin. Receiving a nod she pushed the button and the surgery began. Mei shivered the moment it began, but got over it seeing Kevin's vitals showing only slight elevation due to nervousness.

***

Edge of the Universe

Aurora was piloting the train as it was heading towards the edge of the universe. "Why did you even make it a bloody train Thor?"

"I don't know, just felt right to." He answered by playing around with some of the train systems.

"Sigh, No matter. Are we leaving the branch this time?" She asked, On their first trip they had accidently left the universe, It took the two of them a few hours to figure out how to re-enter, but they managed. They haven't tried it since then.

Since the train was built and from the moment Aurora touched it, the Key worked. From there she tried to interact with the other keys but got nothing, only the 2nd key Cosmic Juggernaut, a name Kevin gave it without knowing that he gave such a name to a train of all things.

Kevin's dejection when he saw his Cosmic Juggernaut was priceless to most.

"Not yet. The only reason we're even doing this is based on how much more powerful the future Herrschers could be. Even Mei's little local test run on Prometheus predicted at least 5 more Herrschers each exponentially more powerful than the last." 

Thor knew that if there was maybe one or two more he could handle them, but if they are exponentially more powerful and if, IF, Prometheus's prediction was understating it, Thor had to think if there would be more than 5 more.

…

(Flashback)

2 Months ago

[Data Entry 169: Possible Prediction of Future Honkai Herrscher.]

[Directive: Based on data gathered from the previous Herrschers, as well as combat data. Combined with data Honkai energy and Honkai behaviour.

Create a prediction of possible future Herrscher interference. Create a prediction of how many possible future Herrschers there could be as well as a general timeline on their appearances.]

[Results: Calculated with 72% Certainty. Deviations are only measured negatively, meaning the 72% certainty only includes whether the situation can get "Worse".

Herrschers: Prediction indicates a possible 5 more.

Further, it is predicted based on levels of Honkai energy in the atmosphere and how they increase with each Herrscher, it is predicted that each Herrscher following will be exponentially more powerful in Honkai energy utilisation.

Finally, it has been predicted that by the final Herrscher, they will be magnitudes of times more powerful than all of the previous Herrschers combined.

Herrscher timeline: It is predicted that within 15 Months the 5th Herrscher will awaken.

Further the subsequent Herrschers can follow up anywhere from a few weeks to a few years. This is all dependent on the levels of atmospheric Honkai energy and how fast it increases.]

…

'At that time a minor panic ensued. Mei almost despaired if it wasn't for Kevin. Mobius spent days in the lab not even coming for breakfast when I cooked it specifically, Vill-v also looked more exhausted the following days. Everyone was hit by it, but with some time and the success of the 2nd key and MANTIS surgery's progress. The pressure lifted a little to what we have now.'

***

A/N:

The time skip arc has begun. Time to begin pushing a lot of stuff forward as it has been dragging for the past 8 chaps since the 4th. Well not exactly drag, but not a lot in terms of plot happened enough. So now I'm going to move forward with the Keys and MANTIS.

This time I'll do Thor and Aurora. Sakura and Thor will meet as he would have only seen Rin during this time.