Honkai: Fire Moth Herrschers

## Chapter 205: Husk - Nihilius of the Imaginary Constructs

"It's finally over, right?" Elysia quietly stood beside Michael, nonchalantly reaching out and twirling a strand of his long, flowing hair around her finger.

"One last time," Michael replied. This wasn't mere speculation—he based his judgment on the rapidly dimming light emanating from Vishnu.

Invisible electromagnetic waves pulsed outward from him, aided by his spatial powers, giving him a crystal-clear view of everything within a radius of tens of kilometers. The entire space was shockingly fragmented; spatial energies surged chaotically, forming a dense web of swirling "vortexes" of varying sizes.

Michael felt a lot of relief that he hadn't used more of his spatial abilities earlier, though that hadn't been his original intention. But he couldn't dwell on that now. Dealing with Vishnu took precedence over worrying about fractured space.

The blood rain abruptly vanished. Even Michael's clothes were dry again, as if the gruesome downpour had never happened in the real world. Yet, Vishnu was nowhere to be found.

[-Collapse wasn't the same as rewinding time; it was the selection of one possibility from many-]

Michael's mind raced, trying to figure out Vishnu's other options at that precise moment. It could have turned and fought, or simply given up…

So, what else could it have done?

This passage is engaging and intense, but for a web novel format, breaking up longer paragraphs will improve readability and pacing. Here's a refined version with better flow while keeping all details intact:

Wait a second! Collapse wasn't the same as rewinding time.

That meant the final superposition—the one that collapsed into reality—experienced the same flow of time as the real world!

Damn it! He should have created more Void Spears!

Of course, that was just wishful thinking. Three twenty-meter-long Void Spears weren't his limit, but he had to be careful using his spatial powers. If he wasn't, the Sea of Quanta could seep into the boundary of the World Bubble within him.

Wait… the World Bubble!

A tremor ran through Michael, as if something anchored within him had been abruptly plucked and was now violently vibrating.

"Huh?"

The ground beneath his feet grew damp. The fine dust churned up by Vishnu turned into a sticky mire. Water pooled at his ankles, rising faster than the earth could absorb it.

"Michael, the Honkai energy readings at your location are spiking!" a voice called out.

"I know."

The dense Honkai energy turned the water into a viscous, oily black. It reeked of decay.

Michael, Elysia, and Sakura quickly moved to the top of a high-rise building in the southern part of the city.

In mere seconds, the black water filled the shallow crater in the Fuller District. It didn't stop. Within half a minute, the lower three floors of every building in New Mallorca were submerged.

A blue-black rain began to fall. Flyers titled "Emergency Evacuation Notice" fluttered through the air, landing on the water's surface and vanishing into the dark flood.

"Oh no, the people in the shelters…" Sakura fretted.

"Don't worry, Sakura," Michael said, grabbing her arm without turning around. "Mu Continent has plenty of resources. Their shelter systems are the most advanced. They'll have accounted for flooding."

Still, they had to act fast. Waterproof shelters were one thing, but proper oxygen supply systems? Trusting those existed was tantamount to ignoring humanity's knack for corruption.

"Ugh…"

Sakura suddenly clutched her stomach and doubled over.

"Are you alright?"

"What's wrong?"

Michael and Elysia moved to support her from either side.

"I… I'm fine…" Sakura gently pulled away, one hand on her head, the other gripping the railing. But her discomfort was obvious.

Michael frowned. He shook his head, already preparing to use his spatial powers to send her back to base. But as he placed his hand on her shoulder—he froze.

The swirling spatial vortexes.

Sakura's sudden illness.

Vishnu's quantum nature.

The disturbance in his World Bubble.

The rising water.

The falling rain.

Michael's right fist clenched.

"Elysia, were many of the lower-level Honkai beasts you and Sakura cleared out the same color as Vishnu?"

"Huh? Yeah, they were!"

Dust from the tremors settled on the water's surface, turning it grey. Then, slowly, it clumped together—sinking into the depths.

The sky cleared slightly.

Michael looked up sharply. Against the dark backdrop, a blue vortex began to form.

Was Vishnu, as a being of the Sea of Quanta, capable of retreating there through superposition? Or had Michael's spatial manipulation in another superpositional plane ruptured real space—causing a quantum and imaginary influx that swept Vishnu along with it?

Unclear.

And at this point, irrelevant.

Vishnu, its body now an ashen grey, plummeted from the vortex. It struck the rising water with a massive splash.

But before the waves could surge—a flash of brilliant purple lightning streaked down.

The impact countered the splash, suppressing the waves. The surface stilled. Vishnu did not rise again.

Ripples radiated outward, colliding with the tiny rings left by the falling rain. The water reflected the gloomy sky, its surface wrinkling and distorting.

Speaking of rain...

It was getting heavier.

The drizzle turned into a downpour. The blue vortex above, instead of closing with Vishnu's death, began to spew more and more blue meteors.

The rising water had almost reached their perch. Below, blue masses began to coalesce—shifting, merging, twisting into the forms of Honkai beasts.

"Elysia, I'll close the rift. You take care of the Honkai beasts down here."

"Got it! Uh… what about Sakura—"

Michael shoved Sakura through a spatial rift without a word.

Then, he ran.

Not on solid ground, but on air itself. Behind him, a pink glow chased his footsteps, enveloping New Mallorca within a radius of tens of kilometers.

"Unlike the incident in current-era Nagazora, this has to be an accident. The Second Divine Key is with Vill-V."

His thoughts raced as fast as his body.

"But there's no doubt—the Sea of Quanta spilling into real space will expose branches of the Imaginary."

Husk - Nihilius of the Imaginary Constructs?

If macroscopic space was to remain stable, the influx of Imaginary energy wouldn't be too different from a quantum influx. He should be able to handle it…

No.

He had to close the gateway to the Sea of Quanta first!

Golden light surged toward the vortex—only to be caught and twisted by the warped space. It spiraled out of control, turning into a tangled mass.

Michael didn't hesitate.

Instantly, he generated more golden threads, weaving them together, forcing them to stabilize the rift.

Just one second.

That was all he needed.

With his mastery of spatial manipulation, one second was enough!

"Close… Huh?"

Michael's eyes widened in shock.

At the edge of his vision, the golden threads he controlled were unraveling—pulled apart by an unseen force.

One by one, they snapped, reverting to their original state: pure Imaginary energy.

Less than a millisecond had passed.

In the next fraction of a second, that same energy solidified—into a massive, dark iron sword with gold edges.

Straight lines—humanity's earliest numerical symbols—were carved into its blade.

Time froze.

The invisible "second hand" struggled to tick forward, caught in an endless loop.

But the culprit behind this spatial anomaly remained unaffected.

A shadowy arm formed beyond the rift. It grasped the sword's hilt—and hurled it straight at Michael.

At that moment, the first character formed in his mind:

"Law…"

"Puchi—"

The sword's massive, sharp point pierced through his back.

Michael's body arched backward. He plummeted downward—mirroring Vishnu's earlier fall.

"This… no, this level of Sea of Quanta incursion shouldn't be able to manifest a Imaginary Constructs this powerful… unless—"

Right.

He should have realized.

Spatial manipulation was inherently linked to Imaginary space. Using it now…

Wait.

This feeling—!

That same presence returned from beyond the spatial rift—the same gaze he'd felt twice before upon entering Imaginary space.

A pair of lifeless eyes opened in the darkness within his heart.

Every law, every definition perceivable by humankind blurred and distorted.

An eternity seemed to pass before Michael even registered the pain.

A searing, white-hot agony in his abdomen. His spine—fractured.

But before he could react—before he could even scream—he plunged into the black water below.

Cold.

Wet.

His fingers brushed against something. Someone else's.

A fleeting touch.

Then—he sank.

No.

He was pinned to the bottom by the giant sword.

Impaled onto Vishnu's corpse.

The very creature he had just killed. The blade pierced straight through the wound he himself had inflicted.

His own wound burned hotter.

Bloody liquid and oppressive darkness swallowed him whole.

Only one sound, carried by the undulating waves, reached his ears:

"Mi—cha—el!"