Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

"Whoa—this is Attica? It's… desolate!"

The international airport, once capable of accommodating hundreds of passenger planes, now had vast empty spaces. Weeds ran rampant on the grass between the runways, almost waist-high, even encroaching onto the runways themselves.

"Come on, Ellie, don't block the doorway."

"But everyone else is already gone." Elysia glanced at the twenty or thirty people who had hurried off the plane—a large passenger plane with a hundred seats, now carrying only this small group.

"You're blocking the staff from closing the door…"

"Ah… oh!"

From disembarking to leaving the airport, they had only interacted with one person, an older woman checking documents. The rest were robots.

"Mr. Welt…" The woman glanced at Mikael, confirming he matched the photo on his ID, then swiped his magnetic card with a special reader.

Beep! The reader flashed green.

"Thank you." Mikael took the forged ID from the woman.

"Nagisa Kaworu… Huh, sounds like a Far Eastern name."

The woman quickly glanced at Elysia, then her eyes glazed over. "My my… such a cute girl!"

She even forgot to scan Elysia's card, absentmindedly handing it back.

"B… Bro… Bronya… uh… are you their daughter?"

"?" x3 Bronya! I thought I could trust your identity fabrication skills!

The woman looked at the three, who shared no discernible family resemblance, then back at the reader's results on the screen.

"Hmm…" She had to question it. Not just the appearance, but the ages didn't match either!

Elysia immediately rushed to the counter, explaining in a mix of aegyo and theatrics, "Oh—onee-san, you have no idea how much we've suffered! Yes, we're not biologically related, but we are a family!"

"Uh…" The woman opened her mouth, feeling she should object, but Elysia didn't give her a chance.

"I know you're busy, but please, don't interrupt! Let me tell you our tragic story, then you can judge us, okay?"

"O-okay…"

"It was a dark and stormy night. Yes, the three of us are completely unrelated, just orphans from the orphanage in Vostok-51… Yes, yes, that night… Oh, by the way, onee-san, do you want to know what really happened in Vostok that night?"

"What happened?!" The woman's eyes lit up. For a woman her age, nothing was more enticing than gossip—especially about a major, unusual incident. As for the truth? Irrelevant.

Whatever story Elysia spun would be meticulously embellished throughout the afternoon, ready to be shared with her neighbors that evening.

"…Mm… yes… that's exactly how it happened."

Seele stared, dumbfounded, as Elysia fraternized with… well, sororized with… the stranger, finding the whole scene surreal. "Is Elysia-big-sis always this amazing?"

"Ah… she has even more impressive tricks. Do you want to try… No, Seele's still too young."

"?"

Elysia spent almost half an hour charming the airport worker, who finally relented, letting the strange "family" pass.

After they left, the woman glanced around, ensuring no work was pending, then whipped out her phone, opening a memo to record and "refine" Elysia's story.

"Ugh… Aaaah! Attica, Attica… this is nothing like what I saw online!"

Leaving the airport, walking down the sloping asphalt road, Elysia kicked pebbles as she complained.

The streets were deserted. The few people they passed showed no curiosity, no warmth, no wariness—nothing.

They just walked by silently, their footsteps dull and mechanical. That was all.

"Aaaaah—Eden was so afraid of being recognized that she didn't come. Seems completely unnecessary now!"

The walls of the buildings were covered in pale yellow dust. A gust of wind swept through, and a thick, dark gray fog settled over the wide street. After just a few steps, Elysia's carefully chosen white dress was already stained a dirty yellow.

"Cough! Cough!" Seele coughed violently. Elysia quickly took her arm, covering her nose and mouth with her silk sleeve.

"Ugh… Big bro…"

A figure suddenly darted out of the fog. Mikael tried to stop him, but his words only made the man hesitate for a moment before fleeing faster.

"What happened here? Attica was listed as one of the top ten summer vacation destinations online."

The fog thickened, like ink spreading in water. Within seconds, even the asphalt beneath their feet became obscured.

Amidst the gloom, low, oppressive coughs echoed continuously from all directions, enveloping them.

The sounds drew near, then retreated, sometimes clear, sometimes faint. Seele's thin frame trembled violently. Mikael and Elysia, equally bewildered, drew closer, surrounding Seele. Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, they moved through the thick fog, their only sensations each other's breath and warmth.

It was as if the entire world had been swallowed by nothingness. The boundaries between sky and earth were shattered, no longer existing, making it impossible to perceive even "up" or "down." The city, the trees, both the creations of civilization and the landscapes of nature, had dissipated like a dream. There was no longer east, west, north, or south, no forward, backward, left, or right.

The only, only, ONLY things that remained were the three figures standing silently in the fog. But soon, the fog grew denser, blurring even their faces.

"Strange fog." Mikael closed his eyes, extending his spatial awareness until it covered a radius of nearly a hundred kilometers.

There was no significant Honkai energy reaction. The fog contained trace amounts of Honkai energy, but considering that Honkai radiation had already spread to every corner of the globe, this concentration was negligible.

In other words, this was a purely natural phenomenon, not a Honkai creation?

But regardless…

"This can't go on."

Azure light outlined Mikael's form, his eyes turning crimson, his suddenly longer hair swirling around him.

Instantly, a gentle wind arose—like soft hands caressing their faces—dispersing the accumulated fog. Before them lay the same lifeless metropolis…

… and a girl walking right past them.

"Cough, cough! Huh?"

"Excuse me… hello."

Mikael hesitantly greeted her, but the girl didn't hurry past like the others. She just stared at Mikael with dull, lifeless eyes, a faint blush rising on her cheeks.

Elysia, noticing this, smirked and ruffled Seele's short hair.

Only after Mikael's third call did the girl with long, light yellow hair finally react.

"Ah—ah, hello!"

"Excuse me, what happened here? We came for a vacation… but this place seems a bit…"

"A bit too desolate, you mean?"

"Yes…"

"It's always been like this." The girl nodded slightly. Seeing Mikael's confused expression, she repeated, "It's always been like this. Attica has been like this for a long time."

"But online…"

"This hasn't been a vacation destination for years. Because of the climate change caused by the disaster, less than one percent of the population chose to stay."

Mikael slapped his forehead—he seemed to have chosen the wrong vacation spot again.

-----

Michael > Welt

Elysia > Nagisa Kaworu

Seele > Bronya