A couple of hours had passed as the group of five consisting of Alex, Himeko, Mei, Bronya, and Theresa were preparing themselves physically but most importantly, mentally.

With how Einstein had described this upcoming operation, this was genuinely the make or break moment for the entire mission.

Before Einstein had left with Tesla, she had handed everyone earpieces to inform them when she was in position as well as once Void would reappear again.

Eventually, the time had arrived as a buzz was heard from the piece until Einstein's voice came through for all of them.

"Everyone, its time. The Herrscher has appeared again. Me and Tesla have almost have the Selene in prime position so go out there and buy us time."

Eventually every got up and left the room except Alex, who just stayed on the couch, seemingly thinking to himself.

Himeko noticed this right before she walked out as she walked over to him.

"Don't tell me you're getting second thoughts right now kid." Said the redhead in a light joking matter.

"It's, not that." Replied the boy before looking at the faded out Honkai Poisoning markings and the bandages around his stomach where he had been stabbed earlier.

"It's just, what if I'm a liability out there? My wound is still pretty recent so I might aggravate it. That and, what if I contract Honkai Poisoning again?" Asked the boy, having genuine doubts about this whole ordeal.

This prompted Himeko to sit next to him as she patted his back.

"Keep your head up kid. Trust me, we're all worried about this. Even I am as well. We all don't wanna be the ones that end up blowing our only opportunity at changing fate, however, we all just need to head into this as cool headed as possible, and not forcefully overdo anything. After all, our job is to only stall for time, not take it down ourselves. Everything's led up to this moment, so we might as well make the most of it."

Alex took all of what she said in as he sighed before standing up. "Yeah you're right. Sorry for wasting time. Let's go."

The two walked out and linked up with the other three where Himeko had them line up and stand in front of them.

"Alright. It's all come to this you four. Our last opportunity to put and end to Overseer Otto's plans and save Kiana. Whatever happens out there, I just wanna say that you four's contributions are greatly accepted. There's no one else I'd rather work alongside with than you all." Said Himeko before clearing her throat. "Now then, onwards to the Herrscher!"

The five began to make their way to where Void had reportedly been located.

It took a while but eventually they all arrived at the place of what could be the final battle, Void was there just ahead, hovering in the air with her arms behind her back, back facing the group as she sighed.

"Time and time again, no matter how many times I inflict pain, catastrophes, and claim lives, you humans just keep regrouping and come back. Just stick to the script, that fate you're all resounded to and die. Regardless if I'm against one, two, four, or even a whole army of you, you all are still nothing more than insects to me."

With that being said, Void turned around to face the group, a smirk across her face.

"Now then, who's willing to step up to the late first?" She asked.

Himeko immediately stepped forward and began to approach the Herrscher.

As Void was prepared to easily dodge or even block, she was caught off guard when a combination of Project Bunny's missiles, Alex's alchemical projectiles, and Judah's chains all rushed at the Herrscher.

Void immediately moved out of the way at a frantic pace to avoid the attacks.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that if you're all gonna wanna even have a realistic chance as distracting m-!?"

As she was about to gloat, she felt a sudden surge of electricity dash past her.

Said electricity belonged to Mei as she slowly sheathed her blade, as the electricity turned into shock as Void was immediately electrocuted.

Though she did yelp in pain, being a Herrscher meant that she didn't really suffer any major harm.

That was until she looked and saw Himeko making a mad dash at her.

Void immediately stepped back right as Himeko had reached her going for a slash.

The sword ended up grazing Void's left arm as the Herrscher panted, smirking after the interaction.

"Well well, I gotta give you all credit. All of that for just a meaningless cut. Such a shame that it won't amount to much."

Right as Void said that, she felt something odd.

Unlike the shock fron Mei's electricity, the pain from Himeko's cut wasn't going away.

As Void looked, she was completely surprised when she saw that not only had the cut not healed, but she was also bleeding from said cut.

"W-What the hell!? Blood!? Me, bleeding!? Impossible!" Shouted the now angry Herrscher.

Himeko found the sigh funny as she gave out a small laugh.

"What was that about a meaningless cut? To think that you're actually bleeding. I never would've expected a god to bleed so easily." Said the redhead with a tone of complete confidence.

As Void angrily looked at Himeko, she began to take notice of her battlesuit, until it finally clicked in her head.

"T-That battlesuit..............n-no, no way! Impossible! It's using a gem, my gem!"

The Herrscher pushed her arms outward, causing a force pushed back everyone except Himeko as she then snapped her fingers, creating barrier preventing the others from getting in.

"Geez. I didn't think that one simple cut would cause you to go this far." Said Himeko, still keeping her smirk.

"Enough! You wanna use my gem, then fine so be it! I'll just show you how vastly inferior yours is compared to the real deal!" Shouted the Herrscher.

Himeko simply chuckled and looked out at the others.

"Don't worry about me! Just step back and be ready in case this barrier goes down! As for me, it's time to send this whiny brat back to her daddy!"

With that, the Herrscher and the redhead began to battle, trading multiple clashes and blows.

Lance and great sword continued to be struck against as lightning from the lances and fire from Himeko's greatsword continued to cancel one another out.

Eventually, with Void being clouded by nothing but just pure anger and disgust, Himeko began to take control of the fight, gaining more slashes and cuts on the Herrscher's body as she began to bleed all over.

Himeko herself would also get cut up.

Both were pushing themselves to their absolute limit until the two were too weak to even use their weapons anymore.

Using all the strength she had left, Himeko delivered a massive sucker punch, connecting Void right in the voice, knocking her back causing the barrier to fall.

The other four immediately rushed towards Himeko's side as the redhead panted heavily, struggling to even stay on one knee.

On the other end of the battlefield, Void slowly got up, putting a hand to her face, as she saw blood drip onto her hand.

Himeko's punch had given her a busted and bloody lip.

This only grew her anger even more.

"Y-You insolent human! All of you, just give up and die already! When will you all learn that you're fighting a losing battle! No matter what you all do, no matter what you all accomplish, the Honkai will never be eradicated! We will continue to rise, evolve even stronger, and it's only a matter of time until every little human is wiped of the face of existence!" Shouted the Herrscher, clearly at her breaking point.

What she had expected to be a futile last stand to entertain her quickly had turned south, into a battle she was losing.

That fact was simply unacceptable to her.

Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse, as suddenly she had gotten struck by powerful beam

The plan had worked flawlessly, as Void was completely unaware of the Selene's presence.

Einstein struck home with the beam as it was about to deal massive amounts to the Herrscher.

It took a moment to register the pain, until Void finally screamed, being in massive amounts of pain.

Vast, enormous amounts of Honkai Energy began to leak out of Void's body, her shell having been cracked open.

The moment the energy leaked out, it immediately turned into bright rays of light which then immediately dissipated into heat.

Her body was tearing apart more and more by the second.

"D-Dammit. Damn you all. J-Just you all wait. I'll be back!" Shouted Void.

She then clutched the top of her chest, where her gem was located as a portal appeared behind her.

Void was about to retreat back to her pocket dimension to heal up.

Only god knew how long it'd take until she came back, however, as Alex looked at the clearly out of shape Himeko and her now discarded broadsword just in front of him, the boy only had one thought in his head.

'No. SHE, won't come back, but Kiana will.'

In an instant, Alex tossed his own sword away, as he got up, grabbed Himeko's greatsword, hooking it onto his back, and made a mad dash towards Void.

"A-Alex stop!" Shouted Himeko.

It was too late.

Void then noticed the boy running at her.

She was about to shout at him until he shocked everybody.

Alex had tackled Void, as the two went through the portal, with the rift immediately closing.

Chapter 44: Complete